Darkstalkers: Chaotic War
by Nightman
Summary: Everyone's favorite 'savior' is coming back... screw that. Jedah was cheap as hell in Darkstalkers 3! But first, how do you go after someone who's not in your world?
1. Six Months Later

**Author Note:** Well, that was a nice break while it lasted… but my inner writer has recovered. Here comes the next story. Ready?  
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**Oh, and I believe this is the one hundredth story to be submitted in the Darkstalker section. Darkstalkers _forever_!

**Disclaimer:** All characters, titles, etc are (c) to their lawful owners.

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**_Episode One: Six Months Later…_**

The mild spring weather was thrown out of the city as summer arrived with the first thunderstorm of the year. Several lighting strikes had knocked down numerous trees and taken out the power to large sections of the city. The family of cat women decided to stay at the chaotic human's home until his return. Six months have passed since Joe began his training with Donovan.

_Guess we aren't getting any business today._ Jeff sighs as he wipes off dust from the cash register. Even though the restaurant has gained more popularity with its feline waitresses, no one dares to venture out in the strong storm. _Might as well close up and head home early. I hope we aren't having fish for dinner again…_Just as Jeff reaches for the lights, someone walks in triggering the hanging bell on the door.

"Sorry, but I'm closing now." The figure pulls off a large rain soaked cloak drenching the human and the floor. "I just finished washing the floor!" The figure turns out to be Donovan carrying a sickly looking Anita in his arms. "What are you doing here and where's Joe?"

"He's busy… right now I need your help."

After closing up, Jeff took Donovan to the house and checked on Anita's condition with a handheld scanner. The young psychic coughs violently as Felicia places a blanket over her shaking body and a wet rag on her forehead. "She's got a bad cold and a high fever… a few days rest and she'll be fine." Not satisfied with Jeff's analysis, Felicia knocks him aside as she stands up to the Darkstalker hunter. The size difference is apparent as the seven foot hunter towers over the just under five foot, five Felicia.

"How could you keep Anita out in this weather?" fumes Felicia as Donovan walks into the living room paying no attention to Felicia's question. "Answer me!" Donovan's right eye turns yellow as he stares down the angry cat woman. "You are lucky I promised your mate that I would not harm you Dark One." Lucy comes storming into the room and points a finger at the powerful hunter. "If you're talking about that Joe, he's not her mate!" The hunter takes a seat on the couch and leans his sword against the wall. "Besides, where is that pathetic human anyway? I guess he wasn't able to survive your 'training'."

"You are mistaken. That human is still training alone in the mountains to the north." Donovan's statement about Joe's lack of attendance silences the room. "You see, he chose to remain even after he completed my requirements."

_Flashback to a few days ago_

An aqua eyed Joe gasps for breath in an open field of the forest as Donovan summons his fire spirit. Joe's clothes are barely hanging onto his body as he blocks the wave of flames with his arms. The intense heat breaks through Joe's defense and sends the tired human flying through the air to a hard landing on the grassy fighting surface. "You've improved, but it still isn't enough to defeat me!"

As Donovan's fire spirit vanishes, Joe rises to his feet and wipes away the built up sweat from his face. A sharp pain from Joe's hands reveals slight burns from the last attack on the palms of his hands. _Hey, I'm getting better at blocking. I can remember when that attack would burn the skin right off of my hands…_ To relieve some of the pain, Joe rips off the remainder of his shirt's sleeves and wraps his hands tightly to cover the wounds.

"Are you finished human? Has your body and spirit given up yet again?" A small smile comes out from Joe's face. "No way! Let's go, just one more time…" While preparing to strike again, Donovan notices something about his trainee. _Strange… even with his body and energy in shambles, this human continues to fight._ The hunter rests the super-sized sword over a shoulder and looks at his opponent. "We are…"

"Yea?"

"We are done." The chaotic human lands on his face as Donovan returns the sacred sword to its place on his back. Joe jumps onto his feet and runs up to his teacher to demand an explanation. His eyes have returned to their peaceful brown color as Donovan looks down at him. "What do you mean 'We are done'? I don't feel any different from the first day we started."

"Do you know why I told you not to transform into your fighting form?" Joe scratches his filthy hair as he tries to understand Donovan's message. "It is because of the Pyron creature's ability to adapt to its enemy in a split second. If you had crossed him in your previous energy wasting condition, you would have definitely been destroyed." The human is left speechless as Donovan changes the subject. "However, that form only multiplies the current level of strength, speed, and power that exists in you. By training your weak human self, you have given yourself a better chance to survive."

"Donovan…" Anita walks over to where Joe and Donovan are talking and collapses on the ground. Joe checks on the little girl and pulls his hand away from her head. "She has a fever Donovan." The hunter picks up the child and wraps her in his cloak. "Go to my hometown. I'm sure my brother and the others can help her."

"I shall request help from your human brother. But I will not be as kind to your cat friends." As the Darkstalker hunter walks away from Joe, a strange feeling runs through his body. _What is this power…?_ Donovan turns around to find Joe holding his palms together aimed directly at him. Joe's hair and eyes begin to change as energy begins to gather in his hands. "I want you to swear on your life, that you will not harm any of the people living under in my home."

The gathering amount of energy quickly grow s into a force to be reckoned with as Donovan attempt to find a the reason of Joe's power. _Could it be that this human as grown fond of the catwoman? His energy is far too low to gather so quickly… he must be taking life-force energy directly from his body!_

A sphere of energy begins to take shape in Joe's hands as he tries to keep his focus on the attack at hand. "Alright human. I will not harm the catwomen or anyone you claim to be an ally." Satisfied with the agreement, Joe stops gathering energy and lies down for a much needed nap. "He's willing to sacrifice himself to protect a Dark One?" The story ends as Lucy contradicts Donovan's story.

"Oh come on! That human is a pathetic, pervert who just likes having us around." Donovan stares into space as the cat woman turns on the storyteller. "Are you listening to me?"

"Say what you like. But the human is correct on one thing. The creature known as Pyron will arrive in about ten days." Silence grips the house as Donovan explains Joe's prediction of doomsday. "While this creature is the same as the one I destroyed, it is also different."

"Different how?" questions Felicia.

"This creature is not here to finish its original mission to judge our evolution. It is coming to destroy the ones responsible for his destruction." The hunter grabs his cloak and sword and heads for the door. But Felicia cuts off Donovan from leaving. "What do you want cat?"

"You're just leaving Anita here?"

"She'll be safer here while I go and do some "extreme" training." The hunter pulls a large hat out from under his clock and enters the darkness of the driving rain. Donovan slams the door shut rattling the house down to the foundation. Jeff walks out of Anita's room to locate the source of the noise and get the info Donovan delivered from Joe.

"WHAT? Pyron's arriving in ten days!" screams Jeff as Felicia restates Donovan's message. The human folds his arms across his chest and stares intently at the ground. "This isn't good. My satellite did find something coming at the earth but I can't get in contact with Phobos to prep a counter-strike." _Guess I won't get to use that new piece of equipment for when I link with Phobos…_ Jeff whines to himself. _It's not like I can call the military and say, "Hi, there's an evil being of unstoppable power coming in less than two weeks, can I borrow a few nukes?"_

With no one paying attention to her, Felicia sneaks up to Joe's room where she has spent the last six months sleeping and looks at the photos on his desk. The pictures range from his days playing football in high school to his graduation day. "Joe may seem like a tough guy but he shows a different side when he's around me… could he be?" Felicia's face starts to turn red as she slaps some sense into herself. "I've only know him for about a year, so there isn't a connection between us."

The emotionally confused feline turns back the clock in her mind to remember the past year with the chaos endowed human. From the day they first met when Joe fell out of the sky to Gallon's, Jon's dark half, attack and defeat to the time he dueled Bishamon to rescue her up to the day Joe gave Felicia her necklace. Felicia takes her necklace in hand and looks into the emerald stone as a faint image of Joe appears in it. A smile appears on her face as someone breaks the silence of Joe's room.

"What are you doing in here?" Felicia nearly jumps out of her fur as Lucy catches her by surprise. "You're thinking about that guy again aren't you? Haven't I told you that humans are always going to hurt us?"

"Yes, like a thousand times Lucy."

"Then why are you so concerned about him?" The super star neko wanders over to a window and places a paw on the glass. The falling rain splashing against the shut window sends a cool sensation to the pondering cat woman. "Lucy, you cared about humans at one time. What made you turn against them?" The head band wearing cat clenches a fist as she remembers her hurtful past.

"They killed the only person that cared about me! And I…" Caught in Felicia's trap, Lucy turns around and grabs the door as she walks out of the room. However, she stops to give her friend one last piece of advice. "Even if he does have feelings for you, what makes you so sure he'll stick by them?" As the door shuts, it echoes through Felicia's mind.

Meanwhile, Joe is busily mediating in the rain logged forest as the rain finally comes to an end. With the physical part of his training complete, now comes the hard part of trying to remove the seal on the Chaos Stone. As the storm clouds move out of the area, the blue sky turns red as the space traveling Pyron closes in on the little blue planet.

_So, he's almost here… I'm beginning to feel his awful power even at this distance. But even if I get rid of this damn seal, I cannot involve myself in this battle for Dami is my only real enemy._ The memory of the training warrior breaks away for a second as Joe remembers the strange dream he had before Donovan's training began. _According to that voice, should I involve myself in this upcoming battle; someone close to me will get hurt._

"Hmm?" Joe breaks out of his meditative state in time to avoid a large ninja star that has sliced the stump he was sitting on in half. The training human looks up to find the blue skinned hunter Hsien-Ko and her sister Mei-Ling standing where his seat was just destroyed. "We finally found you!"

"So? Can you ladies come back later? I'm a little busy with my training at the moment and I can't play with you right now." Hsien-Ko reaches into her sleeves and pulls out a set of six knives from under her clothes and hurls three of them at the demanding human. Joe avoids two of the sharp weapons, but the third slices a small cut on his right shoulder.

"I thought you said he'd be a much better opponent if we let him train sis." The dark hating hunter looks over to find her twin sister staring up at the sky. "What's wrong sis?" While his attacker his preoccupied, Joe runs up to the blue skinned ghost and reaches into her garments. "What are you reaching for pervert?" Joe pulls out a set of Hsien-Ko's anti-Darkstalker chains and tightly wraps the hunter from head to toe in her own equipment. The chains pin the female hunter's arms against the side of her undead body causing her to drop her knives. "What the hell? Hey, are you going to help me sis?"

"Very well." Before Mei-Ling can complete the hand signals to finish her Talisman transformation technique, Joe appears like lightning to pin Mei's right arm behind her back while holding a knife to her neck. "I know the two of you can't feel pain, but I bet you can't keep living without a head."

"So why don't you just finish us off?" asks Mei-Ling. "You have the upper hand."

"True." Joe releases his captive spellcaster and hurls the knife at Hsien-Ko slicing the chained hunter free. "But, I'm not your enemy now am I?"

Night fell onto the mountainous forest as Joe blew out a pit in the ground with a small energy burst and filled it with the scrap wood of hid former meditation stump. "Nice, but how are you going to start a fire?" mocks Hsien-Ko as Joe simply snaps his fingers and the pit instantly ignites into a roaring fire. "Showoff." The hunter uses the fresh fire to repair the broken chains as her sister is questioned by their prey. "So, you can sense it too?"

"Yes. The evil light is returning and we must be ready to…" A low growl coming from Joe's stomach interrupts Mei as he asks the obvious question. "Sorry to change the subject, but do you guys happen to have any food on you?"

"Food?" scoffs Hsien-Ko from her welding pit. "We haven't eaten in over three hundred years, why would we have a need for something as useless as food?" Joe sits down on the wet ground while looking over his raggedy clothing as his stomach growls in anger. "Hsien-Ko, that's not very kind."

"Well it's true."

"If you guys don't have any food… can I request something else since you owe me for not killing you?" The two sisters give each other a nervous look as the fire crackles in the night.

"That's right, keep training human. It doesn't matter how much you grow, as long as that seal remains in place… you can never defeat me! Let alone that Pyron creature." Dami continues to watch his rival strengthen himself as his black cat strolls into the room. "What is it?" The black cat morphs into the cat woman Helicia and the transformed creature hangs off of the shoulders of her master. "It's late Master Dami, can't you forget about that human and focus on me?"

"Leave me be. I shall have my way with you at another time."

"But Dami…" purrs the dark furred neko. "I said leave me!" Dami blows the girl away from him and pins Helicia against the wall with his power. The evil being releases his forceful grip on his plaything's body and returns to watching the everyday life of his rival. "Let that be a warning to you. Now get out."

Defeated by her master's lack of interest in her, Helicia walks out of the room dragging her tail behind her. As the cat makes her way down dimly lit hallway, a familiar voice calls to her. "So, the Master even refuses the service of his personal pet?" The voice belongs to Gallon as the black werewolf steps out from the shadow of the torch lit hallway and faces the cat woman who has the same figure as the girl he has been after.

"What do you want wolf?" Gallon limps over to Helicia; his body is still injured from his last fight with Joe. "Why must you constantly give yourself to the Master? He doesn't care about you, so why do you…" The "evil" Felicia turns and lands a hard punch to the still injured Gallon's ribs knocking the proud warrior to his knees. "He is my Master and I will never go against his wishes." The pissed off cat woman walks out of view as Gallon regains himself.

"You say that, but I can sense that you're emotions are waning…"

**To Be Continued! **

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_Trailer for the next episode:_ **

With the news of Joe's return, the gang decides to throw a special party. But there are some problems… and Pyron isn't the cause!

Jeff: His phone call said he'd be here in a few hours and… where is Felicia?

Lucy: She said that she had to go get something. I don't know what that "something" is, but if she's…

Jeff: Don't worry about it. My bro isn't "that" kind of person and neither is Felicia, right?

_Next time…_ **Episode Two: Felicia, Catnapped?**

Jeff: They must be…nah! Are they?

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**Author Note:** Whoo! The first chapter to a new story is done and now it's time to slack off before I start chapter two… maybe I can finish this story before another year passes. 


	2. Felicia, Catnapped!

**Author Note:** This is a notice to those who are expecting great things to be coming up this summer. Due to several factors that are out of my control, I will not be able to get these chapters up as fast as I would like. So, there will not be a set time for updates until further notice.

Ok, enough bad news. Time for some good news… here's a new chapter!

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_Time until Pyron's arrival: Seven days…_

_**Episode Two: Felicia, Catnapped?**_

As Pyron approaches the earth, his presence begins to impact the uncontrollable environment on a global scale. The ocean has risen several feet causing massive amounts of flooding and coastal erosion, tornados and severe storms ravage the continents, and animals begin to act strangely as the cosmic being closes in on the tiny blue planet. The world's scientific community is at a loss of words as the spontaneous events confuse even the best thinkers while the crazies continue the "end of the world" speeches from their street corners. However, the city of our chaotic hero is enveloped in a veil of clouds as a phone call causes excitement in Joe's house to erupt at ten in the morning.

"Well, that was him." States Jeff as he hangs the phone back on the wall. "Joe said he'll be home later today and I think this is a good time to celebrate."

"Why?" questions a reclined Lucy as she looks up from the latest "People" Magazine and sits up on the couch. "Well my anti-human cat friend, we don't know if we are going to survive this upcoming attack." The lone human looks at the calendar on the wall noticing that the tenth of June has been circled in red ink. _Now I remember, that's the day Donovan said Pyron was arriving…_ "So what's wrong with throwing a party?"

"Hmm, let's do it." The little cats jump with joy as they dash into the basement to look for the party things while Jeff chases after them. "Hold on a second! Don't be going through my stuff!" The head banded cat woman sighs and returns to her reclined position as Felicia and Grace enter the room.

"What's going on Lucy?" questions Felicia as the commotion from the basement draws their attention. **"DON'T TOUCH THAT!"** A loud smash along with Jeff's scream forces Grace to go downstairs and wrangle the young cat girls. "Who was on the phone? It sounded like Joe…" A vein bulges underneath Lucy's headband as she hears the one person's name for the umpteenth time. _I can't believe Felicia's still thinking about that guy…_ "Lucy?"

"There was something said about him coming home, but I didn't hear much."

"He's coming home?" Felicia hesitates to continue her statement as she grabs some money from Jeff's wallet. "I'm going to pick something up, can you tell the others I'm leaving?"

"Yea, sure." Felicia takes off as Lucy rolls over and falls asleep. "Like I'll have anything to do with him."

A few hours later, Felicia is happily walking down the street with a large package in hand. _I hope he likes this. It has to be a while since Joe got something like this._ The delighted neko suddenly stops dead in her tracks as something wet hits her in the face. _Not now…_ Felicia dashes into a nearby alley and ducks under a doorway just as a burst of rain pours down from the sky. After checking on her package, Felicia looks up into the rain cloud filled sky and sighs. "Great, now I'll be late."

"That's not the only thing you should be worried about freak." Felicia looks around to find herself surrounded by a gang of four wet and pissed off humans. "Remember us?"

"Not really… are you guys from that boy band?" A thug swings a punch at Felicia only to be countered by a right hook from the cat woman. "Now I remember…" Felicia rolls into another thug and knocks him out with a three hit combo while remaining in the dry area of the doorway. "…you guys must be from that gang Joe beat up." Two more fellow gang members attempt to charge the Darkstalker only to be sent flying into a row of trash cans. "That was fast. But I thought the police arrested all of those guys…" The rain stops allowing Felicia to return home dry. "Time to get going… but why do I still sense danger?"

Suddenly, someone stabs Felicia in the back with a high voltage tazer causing the victorious night warrior to fall face first on the wet ground. The high shock has temporarily paralyzed Felicia's normal motor functions but she is able to find a fifth person standing over her before losing consciousness. _Someone help…_

"Huh?" A strange feeling breaks through Joe's body in the middle of the woods while Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling stare at him. "What is it now human?"

"Did you just feel something?" The two sisters shake their heads in disagreement as Joe starts running straight ahead gaining a large lead on the two hunters of the dark. "I have to leave guys… just keep heading south and you'll hit my home town." The human dashes off into the forest kicking up a small shockwave as he leaves the sisters in his dust. "How rude…eh sis?" Mei-Ling is staring at the path Joe took and ponders something to herself. "Sis!"

"Sorry…"

"You've been doing that for a while now… care to explain why?" Mei-Ling looks ahead and points something to her blue skinned sister. "What the?" Joe's "little" shockwave has shattered all of the trees at his starting place. All of the trees along the path of the running human are left with several deep cuts into the bark. The piles of splinters on the ground are lifted into the air by a gentle breeze as Joe continues to dash head home. "That human… he's destroying the forest just by running through it!"

"I'm afraid that his power is begging to evolve faster than anything we have fought in the past Hsien-Ko. At this rate, he will…"

"He will what? Out with it!"

"That boy… he will become stronger than any Darkstalker in existence!" Hsien-Ko wipes away tears from her eyes as she laughs at her sister's idea. "Nice one. You almost had me believing for a second that…" Mei's eyes are fixated on the ground as Hsien-Ko backs away from her sister. "You aren't kidding are you? He's really that strong?"

"Not yet, he is on the edge of breaking through his limitations. If he does that, there is nothing that can stop him."

While the two sisters decide on their next course of action, Joe is busily running through the forest not realizing that his speedy return is causing damage to the area. Joe's arms and legs have become blurs while he keeps his eyes fixated on the horizon and the city that is rapidly approaching. _I know I heard Felicia's voice…_ The speeding human exits the forest and stops on a small cliff that sits over the city and finds the citizens going through their everyday business. He shuts his eyes and begins to sweep the city for any sign of his furry friend. _Where is she? I can sense Felicia is hurt, but how could she be moving so fast?_ Joe sharply opens his eyes and launches off of the cliff in a burst of white energy towards the center of the city.

Meanwhile, an average black delivery van travels down a busy city street carrying a strange cargo. The stunned Felicia is shocked several more times by her captors before they toss the defenseless cat woman against the side of the van. A red light stops the van at an inner section allowing the leader of the pack to turn around from the front seat. "Hey, knock it off back there!" shouts the driver. "Wait until we get out of the city before you guys start that rough stuff."

"But Boss, can't we start now?" whines a subordinate. The light turns green and the leader turns the truck onto a multi-lane highway leading out of the city. "Now you can begin, but I want to finish her off." Felicia rolls over and sits up against the inside of the truck to find her four attackers starting to close in with impure thoughts in mind. Just then, someone appears on the highway lane straight ahead of the van with a black hooded cloak covering the person's identity.

"Who's dumb enough to be standing in the middle of the…?" Two aqua colored eyes stare at the driver as he slams on the accelerator throwing the passengers in the back around. "What's wrong boss?" questions one of the tossed followers as he moves into the front passenger seat. "Boss, that must be the guy who took out our gang!"

"Oh really? I'll make this quick." The van quickly closes in on the intended target who refuses to move out of the way. Felicia looks through the windshield from the back of the van and notices the mysterious individual. _Who is that?_ Only a few feet separate the person from a deadly impact when the person in questions vanishes from sight. "Where did he go?" The driver looks all over the front of the van for any sign of a hit when something in the sky catches his attention. "The fuck is that?"

The unknown object drops out of the cloudy sky and slams full speed into the roof of the van nearly splitting the vehicle in half. The force of the impact blew out all four tires at the same exact time causing the crippled van to roll onto the driver's side and skid along the highway for several yards. The wrecked automobile finally comes to a stop with broken glass and shredded rubber scattered across every lane of the highway as one of the men crawl out of the back of the van with a large bleeding cut down the side of his face and pulls out an unmoving Felicia over his shoulder. A voice speaks to the man as the sirens of highway patrol cars being to close in.

"Drop the girl right now or else…" The man pulls a handgun out from the back of his pants with a free hand and turns around to face his visitor. "Or else what?" The man aims the weapon at the area of the cloaked person's head and pulls the trigger. The shot echoes through the air as the weapon lands at the feet of the shooter who now has a face full of the cloaked figure's right elbow. Felicia lands in her savior's arms just as the knocked out man falls backward with a cocktail of injuries to his face. "That or else." The figure's hood is blown off by a gust of wind to reveal Joe's face. _She's unconscious, but at least Felicia's safe._ After grabbing Felicia's smashed package, Joe takes to the sky as the police arrive.

That night, the TV in the living room is tuned to the eleven o'clock night news as the report of the last five members of the gang finishes playing. Even thought the gang was broken apart when an unknown assailant knocked out the majority of the gang over six months ago, a few members had eluded the police's attempt at capturing them. The report also states that the same unknown, unnamed individual had assisted in the capture of the last five members when their van had overturned on the local highway leading out of town.

"That brother of yours can't keep out of the spotlight can he?" comments Lucy as Jeff walks into the living room and plops down on the couch. The cat woman has been trying to find a news channel that doesn't have a story about Joe. "My brother isn't the type of person who enjoys extra attention."

"And why's that?"

"Well… for starters, he has never been recognized for anything of great value. He's just an average college student-athlete who has no desire to become famous for anything." While Jeff continues his talk with Lucy downstairs, Felicia begins to toss under the blankets in Joe's room. Her necklace begins to glow with a green light as Felicia begins to talk in her sleep. _No… don't leave me alone!_

Inside the dreaming neko's mind, Felicia is standing in a barren wasteland as a harsh wind forces her to shield her eyes. _Where am I… a city?_ As Felicia strains to see through the wind a figure appears and shields her from the harsh wind. _Mother?_ The figure is wearing a black shirt with blue jeans, leather gauntlets on both arms that reach up to the forearms and matching boots. _Who are you?_ The figure turns towards the cat woman just as a bright light explodes behind the person blocking Felicia's attempt at identifying said person's face. The light absorbs the unknown person and travels towards Felicia who is frozen with fear at the oncoming light. _What is this? Why can't I move!_

"Hey, wake up!" Felicia wakes from her nightmarish dream to find Joe pinning her to the bed by her shoulders. "It's about time you woke up." Joe releases the dazed cat woman who sits up against the headboard of the bed to collect her thoughts. Felicia pulls a pillow close to her chest, wraps her arms around the softness of the pillow and looks down at the bed. Joe grows worried as Felicia refuses to speak to him.

"Are you ok?" The neko jerks her head up in surprise even though her friend has been in the same room for the past several minutes. "Huh?" Joe sits down on the end of the bed with a leg bent perpendicular to the edge. "That must have been one hell of a nightmare if it caused you to rip apart my bed." Felicia checks out the condition of the bed to find that her claws have accidentally ripped apart Joe's blankets and tore several large holes in the mattress. "Sorry."

"You've never acted this way since we met…" Felicia puts down the only thing that survived her nightmare induced thrashing and crawls over to Joe. The cat woman stares into the peaceful brown eyes of her friend with great intensity. "What's the matter?"

"Tell me… why has your scent all but vanished?"

"My scent?" Felicia pins Joe's head down to the bed and sniffs through his hair. "Hey!" The human breaks free of his feline's companion's grip to fix his hair back to its spiky formation. Joe's hair has almost doubled in size from being out in the wilderness for the past six months. "I can't seem to pick up your unique scent anymore…"

"I'm sure it's nothing. You can't smell me anymore because I just got out of the shower. I was starting to get sick of smelling six month old sweat anyway."

"I guess you're right." Joe places a hand on Felicia's head between her cat ears and calmly scratches the worried female. Felicia is shocked to see a faint image of her mother Rose outlining Joe. _How can this be? Only mom knew how to calm me like this…_ The calmed cat follows Joe as he heads to exit the room and stops him before he opens the door. "Uh, Joe?"

"Hmm? What is it?"

"I want to ask you a favor… I want you to train me!" Shocked and a little in denial Joe questions Felicia's favor. "I must have missed that… did you just say that you wanted me to…" Several minutes pass by before Felicia allows Joe to leave. "Thanks Joe." Felicia gives her teacher a quick wink before closing the door between them.

"I can't believe I just agreed to that." The chaotic hero now turned fighting tutor leans up against the door at the exact time his feline student leans against the opposite site. The pair share a synchronized thought as the stars shine in the night sky.

_I have to get stronger…I want to protect those I care about._

**To Be Continued!

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_Trailer for the next episode:_

As Joe and Felicia take a break in an attempt to improve Felicia's strength in a short period of five days, Morrigan arrives with some disturbing news.

Felicia: What do you mean you can't find the others?

Morrigan: Something is blocking their Dark Force or someone is taking out Darkstalkers one at a time.

Felicia: That can't be! Pyron doesn't arrive for several more days.

Joe: I have a bad feeling about this…

_Next time…_ **Episode Three: The Silent Hunter**

Felicia: What could have happened to them… hey, where's Joe?

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**Author Note:** Well, the glorious return of everyone's favorite Darkstalker OC (allegedly) has happened. Has Joe become yet another overly powerful fanfic character who cannot be defeated by anyone? Or am I just spreading bull around? Keep tuned! 


	3. The Silent Hunter

**Author Note:** Well, that was an unplanned hiatus on my part. Back to where we left off!

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_Time until Pyron's arrival: Five days and counting…_ __

Episode Three: The Silent Hunter

In an area just outside the city limits untouched by progress, a butterfly flutters through the air above an open field and lands gently on a wildflower. The creature makes a fast exit as a large shadow covers the flower. Seconds later, Felicia's tail smashes the flower crushing all life out of it. "Uh, stop the ride I want to get off…" The sky seems to be spinning as the dazed cat woman lies down on the grassy ground to collect herself.

"Did you have to throw Felicia like that Joe?" questions his brother as the victorious human grabs a bottle of water from the cooler and sits down on the grass to rest. _Damn, Felicia must have completed at least six full rotations… _This field was the only place that was available to train the feline fighter that wouldn't draw any unneeded attention had to be isolated from the rest of the human population. Joe takes a big guzzle out of his water bottle and watches the younger cats chase after the butterfly Felicia's tail nearly smashed.

"Hey Jeff, is there anything you could build that would destroy Pyron before he can arrive?" answers Joe completely changing the topic. "You have enough parts don't you?"

"There hasn't been anymore corrupted Huitzil since Gallon's last defeat and those little fur balls shattered what was my greatest creation EVER!" Jeff's loud rant catches the attention of the playing cats as his brother tries to calm down the pissed human. "What was that glass thing anyway?"

"That was supposed to be an amplifier for Phobos' systems."

"Huh?"

"You are so technologically impaired… I figured since Phobos needed an extra form of power to pilot his advanced form, why not give him a way to use it without my life-force?"

"How do you know Phobos is a male robot?" Jeff blankly stares at his brother as the lame joke fades into nothingness. "I was thinking that Phobos had a motherly program built in." The annoyed sibling smacks his unfunny brother in the head with a half full bottle of water. "OW!"

_How can he possibly fight on Pyron's level when a hit like that causes him so much pain…?_

A familiar voice calls out as Joe rubs away the sting from his head. "I see that the little human has become a teacher." The life force driven Morrigan floats down out of the sky from a cloud of bats and lands in front of the two brothers. "What do you want now Morrigan? I'm a little busy here." The aqua haired succubus looks towards the still dazed Felicia who stumbles out of the patch of flowers only to collapse again. "With training like that, who needs enemies?"

"You're wasting my time Morrigan… speak your case or leave." Morrigan snaps her fingers creating several Darkstalker themed cards and hands them to Joe who looks over the freshly printed trading cards. "They're nice, but you are missing a few."

"And I thought you were an intelligent human… those cards are all the missing Dark Ones."

"Missing? Let me see those." Orders Jeff as he takes the cards from his brother and takes a quick glance of those in the deck. "We haven't met Q-Bee, Sasquatch, Anakaris, or Rikou yet but Bishamon, Raptor, Victor, and B.B Hood haven't been seen for a while." Jeff stops on the last card in the deck and pulls it out. "Why is Lilith in here? Wasn't she with you?"

"I don't know where she is. Last time I saw her was a few weeks ago when she asked to go alone for life force. The strange thing is I cannot feel her or any of the other missing creatures' Dark Force." Morrigan points a finger at Joe who backs away in surprise. "Why are you and your brother the only ones without any Dark Force in their body? No matter how pure someone is, there has to be some trace of it."

"Yea, well I have to do something now." Joe incinerates his empty water bottle with a quick burst of energy. "I'll see you at home Jeff." Before his brother can reply, Joe vanishes from sight in a flash. _He knows that pisses me off…_ The tech wiz of a human turns around to find Morrigan has left too. _This isn't fair! Why am I the only one without elite powers?_

Somewhere in the Adirondack Mountains, Donovan is busy meditating on the flat side of his sword over one of the many lakes prepping for the upcoming battle. Several small ripples appear in the water as he opens his eyes. "You are good… but not good enough to completely evade my senses human."

_Guess there is something I need to work on…_

Joe comes out of the sky and stands on the shore of the lake facing the hunter. Donovan jumps off of his weapon and lands in front of his surprise visitor. The sacred weapon returns to its place on Donovan's back as the hunter address the human. "Why have you tracked me down? I cannot train you anymore…"

"I need to ask a favor."

"If you expect me to train the cat woman, I refuse."

"It's not that."

"Then what human?"

"Well…"

Time seemed to fly by as the others wait for Joe's return from his sudden errand at his house. An entire day has passed and Jeff noticed that his chaotic brother was taking a long time to return. _He's been gone for a while… must be important._ As Jeff tries to repair his broken device, Lucy walks down the stairs to the basement and trips over a pile of machine parts at the bottom of the stairs.

"You can't leave this crap lying around! Someone's going to get hurt." _Like you…_

"Well, I didn't ask you to come down here to visit me." Lucy's face begins to blush but Jeff doesn't take any notice. "So, what do you want?" The cat woman recovers enough to explain her visit. "Felicia's been training by herself for several hours now and I'm getting worried."

"It's not like she's in any danger. If there was trouble, my scanner would pick up something." A small red light followed by a beeping noise from Jeff's watch forces him to stop the repairs and check the scanner. But just as he turns on the device that is mounted on the wall, the watch goes silent. "Strange. It must be a bug or something."

"What's the problem?" questions Lucy. "I thought you had these things figured out."

"It said that there was a Level A Darkstalker outside the city heading towards a Level B. But the only A I have on file is Gallon and the only B that's nearby is…" Lucy passes an annoyed look to Jeff who sighs and grabs his beam guns from a desk drawer. "I'll get the car."

_All because I had to scrap my teleporter for parts… damn lack of supplies. I'm so pissed, that I'll go bust up a few Huitzil myself for the needed parts._

While Jeff rallies the feline troops, Felicia continues to train alone at the isolated field unaware of the approaching Gallon. The training neko finds a tree in the middle of a patch of stumps and shuts her eyes tight as her extended right claw begins to glow in a light shade of blue. Felicia sharply opens her eyes and swings the charged claw at the targeted tree. Her attack crashes into the tree only to show slight scratches in the bark of the tree. _Ow! I knew it…I didn't use enough Dark Force. _The cat woman sits under the tree as her mind travels back to the first day of training where Joe was giving her some pointers.

"Ok, let me see how much Dark Force you can gather and hold for five minutes." Felicia takes the form of her EX Charge and hisses as her hair is blown back by the gathering energy. Joe takes a quick glance at his watch to get the official time. "Ok, just thirty more seconds and it'll be time." The "charging" Darkstaker begins to sweat profusely from her body as Joe checks on his student's condition. "Something wrong Felicia?" Felicia's eyes begin to flicker from green to a crimson shade of red as her body begins to shake violently.

Suddenly, Felicia's flexed arms and legs break away as the feline warrior passes out. Sometime later, the fur censored female finds herself lying under a tree looking at the sunlight trying to pass through the leaves. Felicia rubs her face with a paw as she spots Joe standing in front of a different tree several feet away in his fighting stance and watches as he strikes the target with a soft punch and walks away from the tree. Seconds later, the tree explodes littering the ground with scrap wood.

"It's not fair…" Felicia complains as Joe kneels down next to her. "How come I can't do that?" A small laugh comes out of Joe as Felicia becomes upset with her teacher. "Why are you laughing at me Joe? I don't want to be weak anymore…" The human places a hand on the upset cat's head and scratches between her ears. "You aren't weak Felicia."

"Huh? What do you mean? I don't have the power to defeat Demitri, Pyron, or even Morrigan."

"True. But there is something you have that they don't."

"What could that be?"

"You have the ability to see the good buried in everyone, even if they try to hide it. And that's a power no one can create." The human holds out a hand to help up his student and smiles. "So, how about we try this again?"

The sudden presence of a vile scent knocks Felicia's attention back to the present as she looks ahead to find Gallon walking towards her. Felicia stumbles as he rises to her feet. _I'm too tired to run from him and one-on-one combat isn't smart either…_ Gallon surges forward and swings a claw at the tired neko who barely avoids the attack by diving under her attacker. Felicia rolls away to distance herself and prep a counter-attack.

However, her opponent wastes no time in rushing her again using his version of the "Beast Cannon". Running on empty, Felicia avoids the attack but is struck from behind when Gallon redirects the missed attack into the center of her back. The hit sends Felicia tumbling across the ground tossing grass and dirt everywhere. Still feeling exhausted from her training, Felicia struggles to reach her feet as Gallon stands over the burned out cat woman. As she looks up at her attacker, Felicia notices that the scar Joe gave Gallon in the past has vanished.

"How did you heal so quickly?" questions Felicia as Gallon reaches at her. "Wouldn't you like to know…?"

A hail of gunfire forces Gallon back as Jeff separates them and quickly reloads. "This time I won't miss, you sack of filth." The gunslinger switches his twin beam guns from rapid-fire to single shot as Gallon rockets into the air to avoid the two shot attack. "Got ya." Before Gallon can react, Lucy appears above him and lands a heel to the back of the werewolf's head which slams him into the earth headfirst.

The ground shakes lightly as Jeff checks on Felicia's current condition. "Can you walk?" The feline nods as she gets to her feet. As Jeff turns around to assist Lucy in combat, he is cross-checked by Lucy as her body smashes into him. Jeff's weapons are knocked out of his hands as Gallon steps forward from a cloud of dust and cracks the bones in his left claw back into place. _Damn it, I can't reach them! Lucy's out cold…_

"Felicia, it's obvious that he's after you." Groans Jeff as he attempts to move the dead weight of Lucy off him. "Get out of here."

"No."

"WHAT?"

"I'm not running away anymore." Felicia falls on all fours and runs directly at the black werewolf as he laughs at her attempt of an attack.

_What effect does she think coming at me will have?_ A look of sheer determination enters Felicia's eyes as Gallon pulls back his right fist and charges his aura around it. _This won't kill her, but it'll make sure she's silent until I'm ready to use her._ The cat woman launches at Gallon who swings a powerful uppercut into her feline's stomach. But to his surprise the attacked Felicia vanishes leaving Gallon puzzled.

"Where are you?" Furious at missing his mark, Gallon begins to look around for the real Felicia when something slams hard into the werewolf's left right shoulder. "**First Stage-EX Release: Tail Hammer!**" Felicia comes out of the sky in a spinning roll and smashes her tail into Gallon shattering the shoulder blade in his left arm. The wounded werewolf is stunned as Felicia rolls into him and connects a strong "**Neko Punch**" to Gallon's jaw.

"Take that!" Felicia's quick combo had scored two direct hits to a defenseless Gallon but it took the rest of her remaining energy just to pull of the first hit. Now completely drained, Felicia collapsed to her hand and knees as Gallon's body lay motionless. "Please stay down… I have nothing left." As if from a bad dream, Gallon woke up and began to rise off of the ground. "Oh God no. Why won't he stay down?"

As Gallon reached his feet, he jumped backwards to avoid a beam shot. Armed with the combined form of his two beam handguns, Jeff fired a second shot from his rifle which found its mark in the ankle of Gallon's left leg. The werewolf howled in pain as the shot burned through his flesh and the full extent of his shoulder injury became apparent. "Filthy human, I will kill you!" The injured werewolf began to foam at the mouth as he began to charge his aura.

_Enough!_ A voice screamed through Gallon's head before the creature could fulfill his pledge. _Return now Gallon, it seems you are unable to continue in your current state._

"Master Dami, I cannot stop until I have killed the human."

_What would you rather deal with, a defeat or my fury?_

"This isn't over human."

Acting on his Dami's advice, Gallon uses his "Beast Cannon" to rocket away from the area. After a quick scan to make sure no other threats are in the area, Jeff rests his rifle on the ground and assists the two cat women back to the car. The still KO'd Lucy was placed on the back seat as Felicia dropped herself onto the front seat and grabs a hold of her ribs. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm ok, just a little tired."

"What kind of ability is EX Release? I've never heard of that before." Felicia chuckles as she explains her new ability.

_Well, I can't use projectile based techniques… so, Joe thought it'd be better if I focused on super charging my physical ones. I already have a large supply of Dark Force in my body and I can unleash it whenever I need an extra boost of speed or power. Since I had previous fighting experience, it was easy for Joe to teach me how to store and release large amounts of energy. The only problem is that each release needs a certain amount of Dark Force and in my weakened state I could only use the first stage which allows me to deliver a huge amount of damage in one shot. Unfortunately, I was just learning how to reach the third stage before Joe had to take off. Another problem is that if I release too much energy too quickly, it will result in self-inflected damage to my body._

"Wow, not bad. I guess having Joe around help huh?" Felicia's answer is drowned out by her stomach growls. "I guess we'd better feed the successful student before she decides to eat my upholstery."

**To Be Continued!

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**

_Trailer for the next episode:_

The feared even has finally arrived… but, Joe is nowhere to be found!

Demitri: Ha! That human couldn't handle the reality of the situation and ran away.

Morrigan: Last time I checked, this Pyron had already defeated you once before and trashed your castle…

Demitri: Silence!

_Next time…_ **Episode Four: Enter the Pyron**

Pyron: I shall destroy all Darkstalkers…

Jeff: Phew! Thank God I'm not a Darkstalker.

Pyron: …and then this miserable planet! evil laughter

Jeff: Crap…

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**Author Note:** (insert excuse here for not producing this Chapter sooner) I bet you could come up with a good one. 


	4. Enter the Pyron

**Author Note:** Finally, it's time for the earth shattering violence to begin! Personally, I was starting to get sick of the "plot development" and "character feelings" in this story… but now we can begin the critical fight for survival.

* * *

Dark foreshadowing clouds began to devour the late afternoon sky as Jeff threw one last bag into the truck of his father's car. Today was the day that the flaming comet was to hit the earth. But those who had known about this well in advance knew that the comet wouldn't hit the earth. Instead, something much worse would arrive in the place of a disastrous impact. Jeff looked up into the sky and began to question the idea of fighting a being with immeasurable power.

_Man, why do I have to drive to my own possible destruction? Where the bloody hell is Joe?_

_**Episode Four: Enter the Pyron**_

After slamming the trunk shut, Jeff leaned back against the driver's side of the vehicle to watch Felicia's friends see her off. To the heavily disproval of her fellow nekos, Felicia decided that it would be better if she didn't drag her friends into the upcoming conflict. The little ones jumped onto Felicia who decided to wear her nun outfit to prevent excess attention and began to cry. Jeff sighed but looked back at the door as Lucy throws the car keys at him along with a warning. "I'm making you responsible if something happens to Felicia."

_Great, like I need that on my mind as well…_ The disguised Felicia finally escapes the unrelenting grip of her young friends and walks to the car. "I hope you're ready to go, because we're late enough as it is." as Felicia enters the vehicle. Her friends wave goodbye to her until the car is gone from sight then the kittens begin to cry uncontrollably as Grace tries to calm them down while Lucy stares blankly at the floor. "Return safely to us or we can't call our act 'Felicia & Friends' anymore…"

A couple of hours into the trip Felicia begins to fumble around with the car radio to find some music to kill the boredom, but only finds the dull, monotonous tone of the national emergency message telling people to remain calm. "What is wrong with these stations? They're all playing the same thing over and over…"

"Well, you would too if you thought the end of the world is coming." A giggle from Felicia freaks Jeff out. "What are you so happy about? I'm the one driving to my death…"

"You forget that Pyron doesn't know about our secret weapon." The bored cat woman yawns loudly as she crawls onto the backseat to take a nap. _"You wouldn't be sleeping so easy if you knew about my private meeting with Donovan…"_

Twenty-four hours ago Donovan appeared at the house and demanded to speak with the one called Jeff. The two of them met at an isolated spot of town where no one could act as witnesses. Donovan planted his sword into the ground as Jeff arrived in Phobos' car form minus one Cecil. Thinking that there might be trouble, Jeff decided to leave Phobos' excess baggage at the house so he can combine with Phobos and not have to defend anything but himself. The human leaped over the side of Phobos and walked up to Donovan with his beam handguns strapped to his chest. "Since you aren't asking me to train with you, what the hell do you want?" Donovan's eyes shifted to his left as two bright lights blinded Jeff. "Now what?" The lights turned out to be Morrigan and Demitri.

"Bah, Morrigan you brought me to speak with a human and this half-breed? I should just destroy them both." Demitri's verbal threat to Jeff's safety caused Phobos to transform into its battle form. "Hmm? Maybe I'll destroy that miserable machine for the previous destruction of my castle." The golden mech's arms suddenly convert into two huge beam cannons and began to charge before Jeff stepped in. "Phobos, stand down!" After a few seconds his order was obeyed and Phobos' arms reverted back to normal and hung to the side of the golden mech. **Command acknowledged. Returning to standby.** "Geez, Donovan can you explain what's going on here before something blows up?" The Darkstalker hunter looked at the unconventional group and shakes his head.

"The reason why I summoned you all here was to tell you that the human known as Joe will not fight against the Pyron creature."

"WHAT? MY BROTHER'S NOT FIGHTING?! Why?"

"I guess the human realized that he's too weak."

"Funny, I thought you tried to beat this Pyron creature once before and got beat Demitri… or was that dumb luck that you ended up destroying your own castle?" The succubus laughs mockingly as she jumps out of the range of Demitri's arm. "Too slow my dear king." Demitri transforms into his full demonic form and chases after Morrigan in the sky as a sweat drop rolls down Jeff's head.

_They fight like they're married. That's a match made in hell…literally._

Donovan removes his weapon from the ground and returns it to its rightful place. "Hey, hold on a second." Jeff pulls out his weapons and aims them at Donovan who continues to face away from him. "You didn't answer my question."

"I'm unable to answer that question. The human didn't say…"

"Joe never does anything without cause." Interrupts Jeff as he removes the safeties from the guns. "I want a real answer… NOW!" Donovan reaches for his sword which causes Jeff to fire off a warning shot. "Don't even try it."

"You're too late for that human." A puzzled look comes across Jeff's face as he notices that Donovan's massive sword is awaiting the order to slice through the back of his neck. _No way! I didn't even see him touch the handle…_ Before he knows it, Donovan is gone from sight along with his weapon. Jeff throws his guns to the ground in frustration. "DAMNIT! Why am I the only one without special powers?"

As Jeff begins to debate whether he should participate in the oncoming battle or play it safe on the sidelines, a loud clatter from the trunk wakes up Felicia. "Nya… what?" The car comes to a stop on the shoulder of the deserted highway and Jeff gets out to check on the strange noise. He pops open the trunk door to find Pico the eldest of the cat girls hiding in the trunk. _No wonder that suitcase felt heavy… _Felicia steps out of the vehicle and wonders over to where Jeff is. "What's going on?" Pico laughs nervously as Felicia pulls her out of the trunk. "What are you doing here?! I told you to stay home!" Tears begin to fill Pico's eyes as Jeff checks his watch.

"We don't have time to go back now. For now we'll just have to take her with us." Jeff starts back down the road and takes the next exit heading north. "According to the information I gathered through hacking the government's satellites, Pyron will crash into an isolated area of the mountains."

"At least we won't have to worry about any bystanders." Comments Felicia. "Where exactly is it going to land?" Jeff presses a button on his watch bringing up the data he collected. "Hmm, that's weird. For some reason there's an incorrect equation here."

After pressing a series of five different buttons Jeff suddenly whips the car around and floors the accelerator pad. His two passengers grab whatever is near in order to keep from bouncing around the car as it jumps the grassy median and lands in the southbound lane. "What is your problem? Are you trying to kill us?"

"No…" The color in Jeff's face drains out as the car hits speeds nearing ninety miles per hour. "We only have a few hours until Pyron arrives and I screwed up the landing area." The onboard GPS system shows the car heading out of the mountains and towards the Atlantic Ocean. "It's going to land in the center of New York City!"

"What?" Jeff goes silent as he realizes the new situation.

_I didn't expect this. I know the other Darkstalkers will be there ahead of us because they can sense Pyron from your earlier encounter. But I can't sense things like that._

"What's going to happen to all of those people?" shivers Felicia as she checks on Pico who cowers on the backseat in her full kitten form. "Let's just hope the people got out in time…"

The time is eight thirty in the evening as the car stops on a small hill located about thirty miles out from the city. Jeff looks through his binoculars and is surprised to find no movement from New York's main roads. "Ok, this is one of the world's busiest cities and it looks dead."

"Maybe everyone's hiding underground?"

"Let's hope that's true Felicia." Something catches Jeff's attention as he scans the roads. "Hold on. Who's in that junky car?" Felicia peers down the road and squeals as she recognizes the people in the car. "It's Hsien-Ko and her sister Mei-Ling!"

The junky car clanks up to their position and sputters to a halt. A large coffin shaped object lying on an attached trailer shatters to pieces as Hsien-Ko rises up from the box. "This thing barely got us here in time." Hsien-Ko states as she steps off the trailer and kicks the hubcap of a tire causing a piece of paper to fall off the radiator.

The car suddenly collapses into a pile of scrap parts. "You shouldn't have done that Hsien-Ko." Comments Mei-Ling as she picks up the rectangular piece of paper and sticks it in her sleeve. "My 'Restoration Talismans' aren't supposed to be used on non-living objects. They just end up destroying the object afterwards." The blue skinned hunter folds her arms in disproval and walks towards Jeff and Felicia. "Whatever. Oh, hey Pico." The sisters join the first arrivals as Pico runs over to Hsien-Ko who picks her up and sits on her shoulder. "You've grown since we last met."

Mei-Ling heads over to where Jeff's car is parked and looks around for something. "Is there something wrong?" questions Jeff. The spellcaster shakes her head as she asks where their "other" companion is located. "Hell if we know."

"I see… and Donovan is not with you either?" Hsien-Ko smiles devilishly as she sneaks up shoves her sister's arm. "Just come out and say it. You want to have his kids don't you?"

"Hsien-Ko!"

"Yea, well we can't until we find a way to return being human." Jeff's watch begins to beep as another vehicle approaches the group. The latest arrival is Phobos rolling along the road with his young master Cecil in the front seat. Cecil jumps out as Phobos transforms into its battle form. Hsien-Ko freaks out as Phobos stomps up to the group. "You damn machine! You were the one who destroyed our car and more importantly made us walk." Phobos looks down and quietly scans the group while Hsien-Ko continues to scream at it. "Are you listening?"

**Scanning complete. Begin analyzing data… **

**Past enemy data recovered… enemy is of unknown class…**

**Allies data achieved… consist of two B class Darkstalkers, one C class, one D class, and two humans**

**Comparing data…**

**Percent of victory with this unit's involvement… 15**

"Geez, doesn't this machine know how to lie?" scoffs Hsien-Ko.

The early night sky suddenly grows red as a large sun shaped object descends on the city and breaks into five smaller "suns" and surrounds the city in a star shaped pattern. Jeff's watch begins to sound off loudly as the five suns begin to glow.

_Oh no… _"Phobos, raise shields… set for maximum strength and cover!

At the same time, each sun fires off a massive beam of red energy at the center of the star formation. The beams collide above the city setting off an equally large explosion engulfing the modern city in its flaming wrath. Glass from buildings shatter and rain down onto the streets below as vehicles are sent flying into each other and twist into unnatural shapes. Destruction levels not seen since September 11th have left a large area of the city a crater while buildings and cars continue to burn from the impact. Any solid object within the initial impact zone was evaporated to nothing. Night turns to day as the group of unlikely allies watches in horror from the safety of Phobos' shields as the city is dealt a crushing blow.

**To Be Continued!

* * *

_  
Trailer for the next episode:_**

Pyron has arrived… the city's been heavily damaged… and the fighters have assembled, well not really.

Jeff: Dammit! Where's Joe?

Donovan: I do not know.

Jeff: You said was with you…

Donovan: ….and then he vanished.

Jeff: Great… what else can go wrong?

_Next time…_ **Episode Five: Opening Rounds**

Felicia: Joe… where did you go?

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**  
Author Note:** I am really sorry for not updating, I could run off the things that needed more attention... but I'm not gonna go emo on you. 

Later!


	5. Opening Rounds

**Author Note:** Now we can enter the fight against Pyron! I swear, my OC is not going to enter and instantly strike down the galactic overlord. Oh yea, and don't send any reviews about Pyron's text. I planned it that way!

Sorry about the overly LONG period of no updates… sorry, but life doesn't work out the way we want it to sometimes. For those who don't know, I used this a pic from deviantart as a reference for a scene in this chapter. Since I can't link to it here, ask to see it.

* * *

_**Episode Five: Opening Rounds**_

As the threat of instant destruction vanishes, along with a few square miles of New York City; Phobos lowers the energy barrier and the group looks out over the still smoldering ground. Pico buries herself into Felicia's arms as small fires continue to burn. "Felicia…" The tiny neko quivers as the light generated from the massive explosion begins to dissolve into the night.

"Well, we might as well get going." Hsien-Ko grabs onto the custom-built claws from inside her sleeves and looks at her sister. "Standing here isn't going to defeat that guy."

"You are correct Hsien-Ko." Agrees Mei-Ling before transforming into a yellow talisman and attaching to Hsien-Ko's hat. The empowered duo jump off of the cliff and race towards the city. Jeff's hands are still shaking from witnessing Pyron's lightshow and realizing how grave the situation is.

_No way… the city has been nearly wiped off the face of the earth. How can this be happening?_

While the rest of the gang preps to head towards the city, Pyron floats down to the scorched surface and looks at his mark on the world. _**This world is weaker than the previous one… I should just destroy this miserable planet and the Darkstalkers with it! **_Something catches Pyron's attention and he warps away just as a flaming skull slams into the ground where he was just hovering over. _**Hmm?**_ Pyron reappears high in the sky and locates the individual responsible for the projectile. _**The vampire still lives?**_

"I shall not let you defeat me a second time." Pyron laughs at Demitri's statement. _**You let me defeat you? You are as confused as you are weak. This time, I shall not stop until I have completely destroyed you!**_ The creature of pure cosmic energy warps directly in front of his opponent and readies a strong energy blast before Demitri can react. Before the glowing fist charges completely, something crashes into the middle of Pyron's back and explodes. The sudden attack causes Pyron to look away from his target allowing Demitri to deliver a crushing double overhead slam onto the top of Pyron's head and drops the creature towards the ground. Pyron smashes through several windowless buildings demolishing the already heavily damaged structures.

_**There's another? Strange… they didn't work together last time…**_

Morrigan appears from the clouds and smiles as she floats down to Demitri. "Well, well, well… guess who's attack hit?"

"Don't get confident witch." An unimpressed Pyron instantly appears in front of the winged duo with his arms folded across his chest. "This battle's just starting."

"I wouldn't be here if it was going to be easy."

Pyron lunges forward and pushes two energy spheres into his opponents. The attack explodes on contact with the darkstalkers thus seemly destroying the combaters. Thinking that the battle is over, Pyron lands on the concrete and enjoys his apparent victory before two different sized fists smash into opposite sides of his head. Utilizing after-images, Morrigan and Demitri begin to pummel Pyron with an unrelenting twin attack consisting of kicks, punches, and wing strikes. Stunned from the barrage, Pyron is blown into a nearby building by a dual high damage attack fueled by Morrigan's charged Soul Fist and Demitri's Demon Bullion.

Already damaged from Pyron's earlier blast, the building collapses kicking up a large dust cloud blanketing the area. Demitri and Morrigan soar above the cloud of dust to get a better view of their enemy. "What kind of attack was that?" I thought the daughter of King Berial would have more ability than that!" Morrigan turns to face her ally who has noticed her limited range of moves. "Back off, I can't raise my ability any higher without…"

"I knew it, you've grown soft since accepting that other half of you. Heh, without her you're only half of threat to me."

"I can still handle you without Lilith, you self proclaimed lord!"

_**My my… do I sense some resentment between you two?**_ Before Morrigan or Demitri can react Pyron grabs the back their heads, slam them together as if they were symbols and throws both fighters to the ground. Morrigan strikes a balcony on the way down, bounces into an alley, and out of view. Demitri crashes into the street, quickly returns to his feet and fires a volley of shots at Pyron who deflects the volley by turning his legs into spheres and spins them around his body. _**Is that all the "Demon King" has to offer? PATHETIC!**_

Pyron raises a fist and launches his "Cosmic Destroyer" at Demitri who avoids the attack but is struck in the face by a piece of concrete. Furious at Pyron for cutting his face, Demitri unleashes his full demon mode and fires several thunderbolts at Pyron who defends with a barrier. As the barrier vanishes, Demitri clocks Pyron with a right hook snapping his energy head back and claws out a large chunk of Pyron's body. _**HA!**_ Pyron teleports Demitri to the ground and slams him headfirst into a mail box. The box is torn to shreds as Demitri rips it off of his demonic head and comes face-to-face with an energy ball. _**Die.**_ A loud roar is heard as Hsien-Ko runs through the streets making her way to the battle field. "Sounds like someone got there first." The rest of the band of fighters follows behind in the transformed Phobos-mobile.

The overly strong cosmic fighter hovers over the new crater in the street and finds his two opponents missing. _**Bah, there's no one worth fighting on this weak planet.**_ Mere moments later, Pyron hovers over the pitching mound of Yankee Stadium and begins to gather power in the form in the palm of his extended left hand. _**I'll just destroy it and move on to find worthy opponents.**_ The ground rumbles as a large ragged blue blade exits the dirt and pierces Pyron. _**What is this?**_ Mei-Ling appears and cuts off Pyron's left horn with a blunt edged sword. Hsien-Ko launches a volley of spiked balls, one of the projectiles connect with Pyron's face but is absorbed into his body as his horn recovers. Phobos crashes through the bleacher section of the stadium and freezes Pyron with a beam. Felicia bounces off of Phobos' head and uses her "Rolling Buckle" to knock the iced Pyron into the air and is locked on by two of Jeff's shoulder mounted beam cannons from the upper deck. "Wind shift taken into account, power maxed… game over." Jeff squeezes the trigger and launches the beam attack shattering the frozen Pyron into ice dust.

The recoil of the cannons knocks Jeff out off the cheap seats and sends him falling towards the field. "Oh shit!" Jeff drops the cannons and shuts his eyes to the closing in ground only to realize he's stopped falling thanks to his robot friend. "Thanks Phobos." _Good thing I went to the bathroom before we got here…_The golden mech drops Jeff on the ground and begins to silently scan the area. The unlikely allies gather in the middle of center field to discuss their next plan of action while Jeff tries to see if his cannons are still operable.

"Well, that was interesting…" Comments Hsien-Ko. "… I thought he'd give us a harder time than that."

**Warning, enemy energy signature has not vanished. Attack imminent!**

In a flash Pyron appears in front of the group and creates a large throne out of a pile of debris in the stands. "You just had to say that didn't you?" Jeff sighs as he whips out a pair of bean handguns to replace his damaged beam cannons. _I know these aren't going to do shit against Pyron…_ "Hey Phobos, why don't we combine?"

**Enemy will destroy this unit during the unification process… request denied.**

The relaxing Pyron looks down at the uncommon allies and ponders from his throne. _**When did humans start fighting with the Darkstalkers? Doesn't matter, I have the upper hand.**_ To the surprise of the group, Pyron vanishes from his throne. Looking around, they try to find the enemy expecting a surprise attack each one tries to sense him before the attack.

After a period of two minutes, Pyron returns with a guest in his right hand. "Pico NO!" Felicia gasps as the little neko struggles in vain to escape Pylon's unrelenting grip. He laughs at the inability of Pico to escape. _**You weaklings won't attack while I have this one with me will you?**_ Pyron opens up his left hand and creates five small differently colored whisps of flame which float down to the field. On contact with the surface, they expand into five miniature Pyrons each one with its own separate distinctions. _**I have deemed you all too weak for me to fight… however, my "children" will have the role as removers of weaklings.**_ The spawn of Pyron charge forward at the band of fighters who ready themselves for combat. _**Now be good weaklings and DIE!**_

Suddenly, something slams into the ground between the two bands of fighters. Pyron's team backs off and stands ready at the base of his throne. As the dust settles, an impaled Dhylec lies buried handle pointing skyward as it pops out of the ground and spins away. The weapon moves behind Donovan and comes to a rest on his back. Anita walks out from behind his left leg and stands next to him holding her headless doll tightly. Pyron looks to the east end of the field and chuckles at the Darkstalker hunter.

_**So, another weakling as arrived to try and defeat me?**_ Donovan looks up at Pyron; he does not respond nor show any emotion from his face. Pico kicks Pyron as hard as she can in the face and snaps his neck. In a sickening moment, Pyron snaps his head back into position and stares down the catgirl. He throws the girl down the stairs to the feet of his five clones. Mewing softly, Pico looks up and is frozen with fear as the massive yellow clone stands over her. It raises both arms over the neko with the intention of smashing her, Felicia dashes forward on all fours in an attempt to stop the attack. But she finds herself being hoisted off the ground by the four armed greed colored clone. "Let me go! Pico!!"

Pico shuts her eyes tightly as the yellow clone lowers the boom. At the same instant, Donovan moves his yellow eye to the north as a gust of wind blows through the stadium. A heavy shockwave moves the ground as a cloud of debris covers the two clones and their two nekos. The cloud dissipates as Pyron turns his head slightly as his yellow clone's arms have become stuck in the earth of the outfield and the green clone is standing up holding its back with a look of severe pain twisting its featureless face. _**That power… maybe this world isn't a weak as I thought!**_

**To Be Continued!**

_

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Trailer for the next episode:_

If one Pyron was world destroying, then five clones has to be… THE END OF ALL EXISTANCE!

Jeff: When did Joe get so strong?

Hsien-Ko: He's amazing!

Felicia: But, something's not right about him….

_Next time…_ **Episode Six: Surprising Strength… Joe's Return to Battle!**

Pyron: Go forth my children…

Joe: Children? Those are some DAMN ugly kids!

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**Author Note:** What is this… an update? Can't be but it is! 


	6. Surprising Strength…

**Author Note:** Sorry for a delay, but school work comes first… and please don't judge Joe's return to that of DBZ. I had seriously thought about re-writing chapter five where some of the Darkstalkers died for good.

* * *

Keeping her eyes tightly shut, Felicia refuses to open them for fear of seeing the squished remains of her friend Pico. Quivering heavily, she finally realizes her limbs have been freed and opens slowly to find Pico sprawled out on someone's shoulder while lying on her back. "Felicia you're ok!" The little neko jumps into her arms and starts to cry softly. "I was so worried…"

"It's ok… you can stop crying." Rubbing the sobbing child's ears, the confused feline warrior looks up at their apparent savior who keeps focused on the five Pyron clones as they approach them. A long black cloak covers the mysterious individual while a thick hood shields the person's identity. Sniffing the air for a scent, Felicia is shocked to find nothing even through she is only a mere three feet away from this unknown creature.

All five enemies attack at once with eight different blasts of energy hitting the lone figure with a horrible display of their power. Pyron leans onto his left arm and seems disappointed as the figure vanishes from view. _**Pity… I was hoping for a decent opponent.**_

"An opponent…" The cloaked figure stands unmasked as the hood is burned off revealing a serious looking Joe fresh off his training with Donovan. "Is that why you've done all this damage?" Without hesitation, the five clones charge in for yet another group effort as Joe refuses to acknowledge them. Moving to the front, the massive yellow Pyron slams a fist into the back of Joe's head only to pull back slowly as he turns his head of his own accord and stares down the creature. "Just vanish… you bug." Looking confused, the yellow clone's right arm starts to expand grotesquely as the entire energy creature suddenly explodes into vapor.

**Episode Six: Surprising Strength… Joe's Return to Battle!**

Stunning the crowd of random characters, Joe shifts his eyes at the overseeing Pyron and stares sharply at the energy creature. "I'll deal with YOU soon enough…" The remaining clones see a chance to land easy hits and use their opportunity to the fullest. While the small green creature holds Joe off the ground while the blue and red clones pummel the restrained human showing no mercy to the one that destroyed an ally. The pummeling sends shockwaves throughout the grass ripping the surface up as the assault continues.

Watching from a distance, Donovan keeps the other fighters away from the one-sided battle as they protest. "Why can't we assist?" Questions the more than ready Hsien-Ko as her sister returns to her human form. "Sis?" Viewing the battle, she turns to Donovan and nods. "I suggest we listen to his advice and move further away."

Looking at the priestess, the warriors seem confused until Felicia who was silent from the moment Joe's face showed finally spoke up. "He can't fight…" Everyone focuses on the feline for a moment as she continues. "Joe won't fight back until we're out of his way. At least that's what I'm sensing…" The powerful Donovan looks down at the neko as she forces out a smile to assure everyone. _Hmm… this one's a lot sharper than one may think… _

Joe catches small glimpses of missing comrades in between punches and smiles. "I knew someone would figure it out…" The smiling human confuses the clones as the two punchers back off to fire a volley of energy shots with their pink ally. Tightening his grip on the human, the multi-armed green one holds fast as the human looks at his situation. "Hmm… I don't want to waste energy, but I'll have to now." Clenching his fists shut, the captured human starts to pull his arms away from the grasping clone as a shower of energy rains down on him.

Pyron watches from his throne and is surprised to see the strangely dressed human standing in front of the four armed clone as the creature falls onto its face. Several holes have been blown through the creature's body as its four arms have been torn off, leaving a brutalized corpse behind. _**Hmm, maybe this isn't the best way to deal with this individual…**_

In the meantime, Joe has entered a one-on-one fight against the red clone and trades blows with the creature. Both fighters land hard punches to the other's face, they back off and take a short breather. "Not bad… for a clone." An apparent smile comes over the creature's face as a blast of energy blows off the top half of the red one's body. Fading away, the two remaining clones watch as their "father" destroys them as well. "What was that for? Weren't they your children?!"

From his throne, the flare producing overseer closes his outstretched hand and sits back in the chair. Looking down at the surprisingly strong human, Pyron scoffs at his apparent lack of intelligence. _**Children was only a title… they meant nothing to me, so they were expendable. **_The human's eyes start to swell with rage. "EXPENDABLE!? Pointing a finger at the bored creature, Joe becomes angry. "Life isn't something you just toss away like trash! It's supposed to be enjoyed and cherished…" Jumping at Pyron, Joe soars quickly and lands a hard blow into his face. The force of the punch destroys the throne Pyron was sitting on and blows away more of the already damaged section. However, Pyron seems undamaged as Joe backs off of the sitting in mid-air space demon and stands on the already damaged stadium's roof.

_**Are you finished?**_ Setting his feet on the roof, Pyron's power starts to cause the surface to crumble beneath him. "No way…" Gathering energy in his right hand, Joe looks up at the now standing Pyron and smirks. A twinkle in his eyes surprises the glowing alien, as the human instantly appears in a flash and throws a charged right hand between Pyron's eyes. "This is only the beginning!" An intense light engulfs both combatants as Joe pushes the shining fist deeper into Pyron's head.

Meanwhile, the group of unlikely allies has moved into the furthest parking lot from the stadium allowing the two to unleash hell upon one another. The pillar of light shines out of the man made arena and fades away just as quickly. Hearing something falling out of the sky, the night warriors prep for combat only to watch in surprise as Joe's body comes down and smashes head first into the concrete. Groaning heavily, the brown haired fighter notices the others standing over him and chuckles meekly while leaning on the edge of a six foot deep crater. "Hi guys."

"What was that about?" Questions Hsien-Ko as the human hops out of the hole and looks back down into it. "Whoo, now that's a fall!" Joe jokes while brushing dirt out of his spike long hair. Pissed that he ignored her question on purpose, the blue skinned hunter reaches for her claws only to be cut off by Donovan who steps between them. The half breed and the human look at one another as Joe turns away and sighs. "Fine… I'll take the kid's gloves off."

Reaching along his large arm gauntlets, Joe starts to remove the layers of leather straps as the gang watches on. Lei-Lei approaches him and tries to reason with the stripping human to put the protective gear back on his arms as Pyron appears above the small band of fighters. "You can't expect to hurt him physically without getting burned!" Moving next to her, Felicia makes her worries known as well. "Joe, listen to her… you will need every advantage possible just to hurt him."

"Hmm… I don't think so." Holding the two pieces of equipment, Joe snaps the straps around his brown shoulder gear and drops everything to the ground at once. "Ah! That's better. Now I feel more free…" The released pieces fall to the ground and land softly onto the pavement as Pyron starts to gather energy in his raised left arm shaking the ground heavily. A ball of swirling energy appears in his grip as Joe continues to stretch out his unrestricted body. Donovan growls lowly at the carefree human bringing his attention to the threat at hand. "Aww man… you never let me enjoy myself 'dad'." Looking down at the unaware human, Pyron ponders how such an under-developed being could force him to deflect a simple punch. _**This human is interesting… but it all ends now!**_

With the attack fully charged, Pyron drops the sphere towards the earthbound beings and watches on. The surface of the planet around the point of impact begins to turn orange as Joe soars at the attack and plants a swift roundhouse kick with his left heel to the energy attack. Struggling for a second, he pushes the sphere away from his allies and sends the unwanted gift into space.

Standing triumphant in mid-air, the group is left speechless as Pico sniffs around and tugs on Felicia's paw. "Uh, Felicia…" The stunned neko snaps back to reality and checks on her friend. "What is it?" Looking down at the little kitten, Pico points up at Joe's left boot and smiles. "Jo-Jo's on fire." Noticing a plume of smoke, Joe turns around to find his left heel on fire. "AHHHHH!!" Flying quickly, Joe hurls himself into the East River of the city and puts out the flames. "Ahhhhh… well, playtime's over." Appearing before the galactic killer, a soaked Joe shakes off spraying the creature with water who's aura instantly vaporizes the liquid. "Time to get serious."

_**Why must I battle such a confusing opponent? Doesn't matter, he will die just as well…**_

**To Be Continued!**

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_Trailer for the next episode:_

As the battle between Joe & Pyron continues, the energy overlord forces Joe's hand…

Felicia: Where's Joe?

Pyron: That pathetic insect is gone for good this time… just as well, weakness deserves to be destroyed!

Felicia: No… eyes sharpen

Pico: What's wrong Felicia?

_Next time…_ **Episode Seven: A Forced Sacrifice… Felicia's Rage UNLEASHED!**

Pyron: What is this? Must I destroy another weakling?

Felicia: The one who is weak is YOU!

* * *

**Author Note:** Enjoy another chapter, seriously I want to hear how people think. Just don't complain about delays... please.


	7. A Forced Sacrifice

**Author Note:** Sorry all, it's been a long time I know… I had several things happen in my life and now I am ready to continue! Between TF2, L4D2, and MvC3… it's been REALLY hard to pull away for 20 mins to get it done.

**Episode Seven: A Forced Sacrifice… Felicia's Rage UNLEASHED!**

From the ruins of a once great city, the sounds of battle echoed loudly. In the clashing of flesh against energy, Joe was going at his fullest to take down the raging Pyron before he could destroy any more of his home world. Avoiding another round of Pyron's Soul Smasher, the second level of the stadium was wiped out. _Damn… there goes the food court._ Kicking Pyron in the head, the energy being suddenly wrapped around the human with a smirk. "SHIT!"

Dropping to the ground, the suddenly fluid Pyron began to slam Joe around like a ragdoll. Bouncing off the cracked earth, the human spat up blood as he soon found himself airborne again. Halting his unplanned flight, the brown haired human was looking around for his opponent. _**Over here human!**_ Pyron taunted. Turning around, Pyron had appeared behind his friends with a charged Kuuchuu Soul Smasher.

Sensing something, Felicia turned around and was the first to notice the underhanded move by Pyron. "Look out everyone!" Letting the attack go, Joe was moving to intercept. As he went to punch the sphere away, the attack vanished from sight. "What the…?"

"Joe!" Felicia's cry came late as the energy creature surrounded the human in a ball of flames. Trying to punch his way out only came to pain as his hands got seared from the fiery trap. Laughing, Pyro tossed the captured human into the sky. _**Let's see you avoid this one!**_ Throwing out several tiny rocks, the projectiles began to explode at will. Breaking the fire trap, Joe was bounced around the exploding rocks like a pinball. Gasping in horror, Felicia watched as the confident Pyron continued to launch another round of his Cosmo Disruption at Joe.

This time, Pyron sent the helpless target into the ground. Turning into a pillar of flame, Joe was crushed into the ground by his unrelenting opponent. Screaming out in pain, the human's cry was picked up by the feline Darkstalkers' fine-tuned ears. Covering up her ears, Pico was scared. "Felicia… why isn't Jo-Jo fighting back?"

"It's because he's human…" Hsien-Ko answered. "We are physically stronger than he is… but there are limits to the human body." Watching Pyron pick up a beaten Joe, his body scraped up and bruised from the punishment dealt by the cosmic conqueror. Landing a sickening blow to Joe's stomach, Pyron started to enjoy himself. _**I can see why your pathetic kind still likes to torture things… it gives you that satisfaction that you are superior.**_

"I've seen enough!" Looking at the others, Felicia was getting more and more upset with each second. Charging in on all fours, the cat woman was going directly to the fight. Smirking, Hsien-Ko soon followed by the others. Realizing he was not alone, Pyron laughed and had one of his 'suns' crash into the ground. _**Just wait your turns, I will be done soon.**_ Cutting off the apparent rescue, Joe smirked at the overconfident Pyron.

_**Oh? Did the pain finally make you go insane human?**_ Shaking his head, Joe was being held by his neck and squeaked out a reply. "You fool…" Beginning to glow white, the human's hair started to flicker as Pyron tried to figure out the change. _**What are yo-?**_

Phobos' eyes suddenly lit up as an alarm went off.** WARNING! Massive detonation detected!**

"What?" Before Jeff could raise the shield again, the giant sun-like object was shattered to pieces as a wave of energy knocked back all who were going towards Joe.

Silence crept over the smoldering remains of the stadium as it seemed the explosion had ended. Scattered about, the ragtag group of fighters were out cold. Recovering first, Jeff found Phobos out of commission with severe internal damage. The gold machine had protected what it considered its masters as its chest was blown wide open. **Damage… 65%. Combat abilities disabled, unable to combat threat to planet.**

"Ow… that wasn't fun Sis." Mei-Lin had been knocked out from her talisman form and was recovering from the blast herself. "No kidding, what caused that anyway?" Donovan was no longer anywhere to be found. "He must have moved Anita out of the area…"

Groaning and mewling in soreness, Felicia was laid out on her back. Being the closest to the wave had made her the prime target. Feeling someone shoving her, Pico was the culprit as the little neko was about to cry. Landing on her head made a large bump as Felicia sat up. "You're ok…" Looking around, the giant sun was now in shattered remains as it seemed Pyron was gone. "Weird, where's… Joe!"

Remembering the style of attack, Felicia stood up and hobbled over to the center of the blast. "Oh god no…" Finding a crater, a bloodied Joe was face down in the makeshift grave. Sliding into the shallow pit, Felicia knelt down and shoved the human's shoulder. "Come on, wake up Joe…" The human's hair was pushed aside and revealed two blanked out eyes to the feline. Gasping in shock, Felicia rolled over the reactionless human to his back. Placing an ear onto his chest, the cat woman listened for any signs of life… there was nothing. "He's…"

_**Gone?**_

Appearing in a flash, Pyron teleported in and stood over the blue haired woman. Backhanding Felicia aside, the others saw Pyron return unhurt. _**That damn human almost had me… too bad I can move faster than he could explode.**_ Stepping on Joe's lifeless head, the energy monster kicked the body out of its resting place and let it roll. Coming to a stop, Pico screamed in horror at seeing the once cat friendly human's body. "Jo-Jo, no!"

"You bastard!" Grabbing Phobos' left arm, Jeff forced the unit to be dislodged and converted it over to a beam cannon. Firing off a shot, it was easily deflected by Pyron's barrier. _**Worthless… this whole damn planet isn't worth collecting.**_ Looking down the makeshift hill, Pyron saw the recovering team and frowned. _**THIS is all this planet has left? Might as well just destroy the whole thing and move on.**_

Rising up a hand to the sky, the energy creature began to charge up power. Forming a sphere, it started to grow in size until its light casted a doomed glow onto the remaining fighters. Unable to counter-attack correctly, Hsien-Ko looked at her sister. "What about the Dragon Soul?" Shocked, Mei-Lin became angry for the first time in years. "You know better! That can only be used by someone who is pure natured, anyone else will be consumed!" Backing down, Hsien-Ko seemed defeated. "So what, we just sit here and die?"

_**No… I expect you all to just VANISH! **_As Pyron began to let go of his attack, someone kicked the energy creature in the face. Forcing the attack to be canceled, a visibly angry Felicia was hunched over and gathering EX power. Looking down at the enraged sub-creature, Pyron laughed. _**You want to die that badly? Fine, I'll do you a favor and grant a quick end.**_ Throwing a Soul Smasher, Felicia hurdled over it and slashed a claw at Pyron. Catching his barrier, the pissed off cat bounced off again. Catching a glimpse of Joe's body again, the normally calm-hearted cat woman's eyes started to water.

A month prior to Pyron's arrival…

Felicia was sitting on the family's restaurant roof looking up at a full moon. Thinking about what they would have to do just to stop Pyron in a world not their own. A gust of wind blew blinded the large haired feline for a moment as Joe appeared in front of the cat woman. "Hi Felicia." Munching on a sandwich, the human was supposed to be training with Donovan in the mountains. "Joe, what are you doing here?"

"I took a break… I'm already faster than I ever wished I could be. So, I figured a few hours away from my tutor wouldn't hurt." Sitting down next to his friend from the world of the Dark, Joe smiled at the green eyed ex-singer. "You got stronger Felicia, I can tell." Blushing a little, Felicia had been training with Lucy and Grace to make herself stronger. Even sparing against Phobos and Jeff had helped to make the feline warrior more powerful. "Yea, but I can't throw energy still."

Laughing, Joe patted the self-doubting cat woman's head softly. "Listen, energy projection is great… but it depletes power reserves." Sounding a lot like Donovan, Joe tried to sound more like himself. "You can generate your own EX power… so just channel it into your physical attacks. Plus, you got that Delta-Claw now."

"I just don't know if it's enough…" Felicia confessed. Worried about losing, Joe smirked and scratched the worried cat's ears some. Purring out of nature, Felicia pushed Joe away and blushed heavily. "Stop it! You're embarrassing me…"

"You are too wound up… just relax Felicia. No one's going to see us here." Sighing, the fur striped feline curled up and let Joe continue. Purring a little more, the scratching human dropped a bomb. "Hey, once everything is over… you mind if we try the whole dating thing again?" Smiling down at a shocked Felicia, Joe didn't mind to try his luck once again. "What about it Felicia… Felicia… Felicia…"

Echoing softly, the once kind-hearted human was now a lifeless husk of a person. Felicia never answered Joe's question because Donovan found them easily and pulled him away to continue training. Growling more… Felicia's teary eyes narrowed at the glowing energy creature. _**Hmm, something is starting to generate more power…**_ Looking at the injured reserve fighters and the non-moving human, the source of power was not coming from them. The active cat woman was still generating her own power force. _**Better not let this continue, last time I was defeated.**_

Transforming into a wheel of fire, Pyron charged right at Felicia. Jumping over the wheel… Felicia avoided the attack but was knocked to the earth as Pyron suddenly turned around and crashed into her back. Landing on her chest, Felicia was slow to get up. _**Heh, you are pathetic… just like that human.**_ Dripping from her eyes, tears started to hit the ground. "Stop it…" Standing up, Felicia's hair started to warp. "… you have pushed me too far!"

Back at the camp, Grace dropped a dish from her hands. Shattering on contact the shards went everywhere. "What was that feeling?" Walking in, Lucy checked on the older cat woman. "Did you feel that too?" Nodding, Lucy was trying to calm down the smaller neko-girls who were worried about their friends fighting the scary creature. "Felicia… what happened?"

Flexing her tensed up body, Felicia's hair had started to change. From a calm blue to a fire red color. Watching without any cause to worry, Pyron didn't attack. Clenching her claws closed, a loud roar came from the normally non-violent Felicia. The two beaten down Darkstalkers, Morrigan and Demitri were climbing out from the rubble when the power surge and roar echoed. "Who knew kitty had it in her?" Morrigan smirked. "Still, she isn't stronger than I am." Demitri countered. Grinning, Morrigan knew at this point Felicia could easily take both of them down.

Raising her power into A-Level, Felicia continued to push it further. Stunned, Pyron realized his mistake. _**I cannot allow this to go any further!**_ Threatened by the justly enraged feline, Pyron prepared to fire yet another Cosmo Disruption. Rolling into a ball, Felicia flew under the projectiles. "This one's for Joe!" Clawing through Pyron's defensive barrier, Felicia kicked the energy being directly in the head and away from the others.

Lying face down on the earth, Joe's eyes were still blank. However… deep down somewhere inside the human was a thin strand of hope. "Ugh… did I die and go to hell?" Joe thought, the human was floating in an area of pure darkness. Nothing could be seen except empty blackness… "Great, I died and the whole world blew up."

_Not quite… _A lone voice echoed from the dark. Appearing in the forms of two spheres, one of light… another of darkness, two copies of the human appeared. Hovering apart from each other, Joe recognized them as what he looked like as a Chaostalker and a cat person. "So what… you two are here to mock me for failing?" Reaching out, Joe's chaos form frowned and slapped him in the back of the head. "Just shut up and listen, we have a deal for you."

**To Be Continued!**

_Trailer for next time…_

While Felicia dealt with handling Pyron with her newfound power, the next step in Joe's evolution was about to arrive. However… with power comes change.

Joe: What do you mean move to a new level?

N-Joe: Its simple, just move into the next step of being a Darkstalker.

Joe: But…

C-Joe: Stop being so pathetic! Felicia will like you either way! Damn…

_Next time…_ **Episode Eight: Soul Conversion… Embrace the Darkness!**

Joe: If it'll help… I'll DO IT!


	8. Soul Conversion

**Author Note:** I'd like to thank everyone who at least looked at the return of my story… this is why I LOVE you Darkstalker fans! Fair warning… if we go down the road of more DBZ references; just be glad it isn't Gundam Seed. (Yes, I went there)

As always, R+R people!

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**Episode Eight: Soul Conversion… Embrace the Darkness!**

Standing up in the groundless void, Joe couldn't see anything around himself and his two other selves. It wasn't hard to feel the sudden change in the friendly cat woman he had grown close with to be called friends. Sighing in frustration, the silver-haired chaos form grabbed the human by the neck and snarled. "Listen, you need to evolve RIGHT NOW!" Coughing from the fierce grip, Neko-Joe shoved the less than graceful side back. "Hey… we can't force him to become something he isn't. It doesn't work like that…"

"Work like what?" Joe gagged; recovery was instant seeing that he didn't have a physical form in his own head. "If you two are like me… then you'll stop bullshitting around and tell me. What do I have to become?" Looking at one another, the duo nodded in agreement. "You need to become more like a Darkstalker."

Outside the self-arguing human's mind, Felicia continued to rage on Pyron. Utilizing her Rolling Buckler, the changed cat woman was starting to force the murderous energy being back. Hovering around behind his barrier, the once weak creature was now confusing her opponent greatly. _**How… how can someone weaker than that human suddenly get strong?**_ A glimmer of light sparkled in Felicia's eye as she suddenly kicked Pyron skyward.

The energy monster had prepared to lower his barrier to counter-attack, but its simple movement was caught and exposed. Jumping after her target, Felicia spiked Pyron back to the earth. Stopping himself easily, the yellow alien looked up and was blasted in the face by Felicia's heel. A fully charged Delta-Kick with a boost from EX-power connected and warped Pyron's face. _**You'll pay for that!**_

Growling, it seemed the attack hurt the otherwise godlike being. "So… you can be hurt after all." Taking her energetic pose again, Felicia was bouncier than ever before. A fierce gaze came through her eyes as Pyron pulled his face back together. "Round two…"

Back inside his own mind, Joe was still trying to figure out what his own forms wanted. "You say I have to become more like a Darkstalker… how the hell do I do that?"

"It's not hard really; just accept your darker nature." Neko-Joe answered with the other side smirking happily. Looking away, Joe pointed at the tailed male. "You know that's crap! If I did that…"

"Then Felicia would not have to let herself go." Shamed into silence, Joe realized that his own mind was right. If he was stronger… the kind-hearted feline wouldn't need to release a more violent side of her kind. Moving closer, the feline-fused human put a hand on the human's shoulder. "Listen, you have a good heart… most humans become corrupted due to the power of the Dark."

Chuckling with agreement, the chaotic side added in. "You've learned from past losses that being consumed by darkness doesn't work. So… if we give you another shot, you think you can do it?" Looking up at himself, the normal human nodded.

"I won't lose, there are too many people counting on Pyron to be defeated!" Fading into a form of light, the neko form became a ball of light while the chaos form became a ball of darkness. Echoing, their voices overlapped as the two returned inside Joe's mental body.

_You know what to do…_

Crashing several blows into Pyron's barrier, Felicia was blown back by Pyron's anger. With energy spiking off the furious creature's body, an explosion sent the powered-up feline into the sky. Watching his red-haired opponent travel away, Pyron let another Soul Smasher fly. Realizing the projectile was on a direct course, Felicia batted the attack away like a harmless ball before starting her fall to earth.

"Level Two EX Release…" Glowing a slight shade of red, Felicia rolled into a ball as she hit the ground. Spinning up quickly, the feline rolled directly at Pyron. Throwing up his barrier to defend yet again… Felicia was ready. Bouncing off the barrier, a set of extended nails came out of Felicia's left paw and cut into Pyron's barrier. _**IMPOSSI-**_

Cut off, the stunned enemy was suddenly cleaved from head to toe by Felicia's right paw. Her nails leaving Pyron with three long slash marks traveling up his body. "… Double Delta-Claw." One of Pyron's horns was nicked off when Felicia's upper-cut landed. Growling, the energy being found it difficult to recover from the attack. _**What nonsense is this?**_

Not saying a single word, Felicia was preparing to fight again. "Looks like I have the power to cut down barriers… who knew?" Smirking, the ferocious feline suddenly felt strange. Reaching for her chest, the cat woman grabbed the necklace that she never took off from Christmas. _This thing is preventing me from ending this… why?_

Taking advantage of his foe's freeze-up, Pyron used his Zodiac Fire on Felicia. Not able to defend properly, the unguarded cat woman was downed. Groaning in pain, the blazing red hair cooled off as the boost of power faded away. "No…" Laughing in success, Pyron finally pulled his body back together with his left horn being the final section to recover. _**You showed some promise… but again, I stand alone!**_ Dropping a foot onto Felicia's stomach, the confidant enemy forced out a pained cry from the laid out feline. _**NOW DIE!**_

Teleporting himself into the air, Pyron exploded into a pillar of fire. Dropping towards the exhausted cat woman, the heat started to char the ground. "Guess this is the end… Joe…" Smashing into the ground, the pillar ravaged the area as Pyron laughed in victory. _**This world is mine!**_

Blinded by the attack, the remaining fighters were left with little options. Unable to counter-attack at their maximum power, Hsien-Ko pleaded with his sister again. "While that thing is busy, let's just use the Dragon Soul technique." Before she could refuse her blue sister again, Mei-Lin felt something tug on her clothes. "Don't go… I'm scared." Pico, while brave enough to come this far, was now on the verge of tears after seeing Felicia get destroyed. Patting the little one's head, Mei-Lin assured the young feline. "We'll be fine, go with Jeff and be safe." Spraying a small burst of powder from her sleeve, the little cat girl was knocked out by special anti-Darkstalker dust.

Picking up the now out Pico, Jeff had moved Phobos away from the battle area with the help of a still working tow-truck. Looking at the two sisters, he put the neko in the passenger side seat and commented. "Is Felicia…?"

"No idea… we'll find out soon enough." Combining together, Hsien-Ko took off for the distant battle field. Returning to his humanoid form, Pyron looked down at the devastated city and was pleased with himself. _**I still have the power to eradicate the weak… thus proving this world obsolete.**_

Below the cocky creature, something moved underneath the hovering Pyron. Not noticing the moving dirt, the ground started to push up from underground. _**What's this?**_ Pushing aside the dirt, a barrier had covered up the lying feline and protected the blue haired creature from a fiery fate. A hand came over Felicia and pushed back some hair from her face.

"You did good Felicia buying me time…" Standing tall over Felicia, a recovered Joe looked up at Pyron and pointed. "This is it! I will end this!" Smirking and folding his arms, Pyron stared down at the human. _**I've seen your best and am not impressed. But if you want to die, then come on!**_

**To Be Continued!**

_Trailer for next time…_

With the reserves of fighters thinned down, a once promising feline comeback thwarted, and with no hope in sight… Joe soldiers on.

_Next time…_ **Episode Nine: Final Attack: RAGING CHAOS!**

Pyron: Let us see who shall be victorious!

* * *

**AN: **To those who are still reading/just finding this story, I thank you. I do realize these last two chapters are on the short end and may seem rushed... but I'm getting back into the writing sense.

Just a couple of warnings/teasers:

1. Yes, we will be seeing the end of the "Pyron Arc" and move into the Makai World soon.  
2. If you are not someone who likes to do background research on the different Darkstalkers, I advise to do so... because there will be some HEAVY referencing in future chapters.  
3. After careful thought... I said screw it and ALL 20 Darkstalkers will be appearing in some form in this story. That's right, Bishamon/Q-Bee/Bigfoot and yes even some SECRET characters will appear.


	9. RAGING CHAOS!

**Author Note:** Yep, the Pyron arc is coming to a close… but that doesn't mean JACK in this story! R+R

* * *

**Episode Nine: Final Attack: RAGING CHAOS!**

A warm breeze blew through the tense scene as Joe was still looking up at the waiting Pyron. Before moving away from Felicia, the sound of someone fast approaching was easy to make out. "Huh?" Turning around, the Dark hunting Kuang Shi arrived on the scene. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"Ah, long time no see Hsien-Ko." Pondering something, the still beat-up human pointed at reanimated fighter's sleeve. "You got anymore Darkstalker medicine?" Noticing Felicia was still out cold, the blue skinned hunter was about to decline his request. _But sis… fine._ Listening to the voice of reason, the weapon filled hunter pulled out a bottle and shook it. "Yea, I got some left."

Tossing the container over, Joe popped out the cork and spilled a small brown pill into his left hand. Kneeling down, he sat Felicia up and tried to get her to respond. "Hey, wake up…" Realizing how burned out the feline warrior was, the worried human slipped the medicine right past her lips. Seconds later, Felicia gagged heavily from the terrible tasting pill. "That's awfu-… Joe?" Reaching up, Felicia's paws were stopped as Joe put a hand on the big haired Darkstalker's head.

"Hey, don't cry… I don't want to see that."

"But how?" Helping the recovering cat woman up, she stumbled a little. While her Dark Force was instantly restored… Felicia's stamina was still not up to par yet. "I'll fill you in later ok?"

Pouring out the rest of the container into his hand, a small pill came out. Half the size of the normal aspirin-sized medicine, Joe frowned at the final pill. "Damn… I was hoping for a little more." Realizing what he was about to do, Hsien-Ko threw a knife at Joe. Ducking under the projectile, the human saw a shocked look on the normally cool hunter's face. "What's your deal!"

"You idiot! That's not for humans… if you take it, you'll end up killing yourself." Looking up at the still waiting Pyron, Joe shrugged and downed the last pill without a word. Gulping it in a single try, he smirked and then groaned out. Freezing in place, the two last Darkstalkers watched as Joe went from grabbing his neck in agony to smirking evilly. "Got ya."

A hard SMACK came across the back of Joe's head as Felicia fumed. "You jerk… you scared me again!" Smiling innocently at the feline friend, Hsien-Ko and her transformed sister couldn't believe it. A human just took a pill designed to restore Hsien-Ko's body in the event of an emergency and did not succumb to the concentrated ingredients. "Sis… what is this guy? Did he become a Darkstalker without us knowing?" Looking at the human from her sister's head, Mei-Lin didn't have an answer. _I don't know… maybe he got lucky and it's a dud?_ Watching Felicia give her returned friend a verbal bashing, Joe was smiling weakly and trying to bear with it. _No… something IS different._

Looking down from his mid-air perch, Pyron was growing impatient. _**Enough stalling!**_ The energy creature's bellow shook the already cracked earth some. Sighing, Joe looked away from his green eyed "mom". "Hold your ass… I'll be there in a minute." Turning to Felicia, Joe smiled kindly. "You might want to find a new place to watch the ending… not sure how this one will turn out." Starting to hover up, something grabbed his already burnt pant leg.

"I… I…" The cat woman's ears started to sag as she looked for the words to say. "You can tell me later, I just need to do this ok?" Pulling his leg free, Felicia couldn't grab on again as Joe sped away. Soaring upwards, he was going right after the glowing enemy. She was happy to see the human up and moving, but to go right back to what caused him to become life-less shell scared Felicia to no end. "Why…?"

Focused on the waiting Pyron, Joe was ready to end the destruction once and for all. Stopping on the same level as the energy being, the human looked up at the nearly eight-foot tall enemy. _**I do not know how you survived that pummeling and I do not care.**_ Staring directly at the squishy human sub-creature, Pyron scoffed at his returned foe. "I came back because there's a new move I'd like to show you."

_**Oh? And what pray-tell could a human do to surprise me?**_

"Don't get your shiny panties in a bunch… this is the first time it's ever been done before." Clenching his fists tightly, Joe smirked and started to groan out. Forcing out a change in himself, the human's hair elongated as a tail slid out from his torn jeans. Gasping, Felicia knew what was coming. "That's… the hybrid form." After a couple of seconds of groaning, Neko-Joe was revived and brought out to the surface. "Damn, growing out ears and a tail on demand hurts… oh well. Last time I'm using this form anyway."

Looking at the changed human, Pyron was unimpressed with Joe's change. _**So you've turned into a cat-creature and raised your power… so what? You are just as strong as that feline woman was. **_Flicking his own ear, the once cursed human smirked at his opponent. "Just wait, part two is coming up now."

Flexing his toned up muscles, the hybrid began to change again. Pulling the long smooth hair back in, it was cut down to a quarter of its length as it spiked upward. The fur on Joe's arms faded away as his eyes changed from their brown to aqua color. Giving off a short hard shout, the change over to his chaotic form was completed. Hovering away from Pyron, the new form's aura shone brightly in the dark cloud filled sky. Pyron began to become stressed over Joe's stalling.

_**You are doing the same power-up process that cat did! You said you were going to show me something new…**_

"And I will fulfill that promise." Sighing calmly, Joe's hands opened up suddenly and began to charge. Panting loudly… the effects of the medicine were starting to wear off. _Better hurry up, seems that pill was only a temporary fix._

Sensing a change in the movement of energy, Morrigan had separated from a displeased Demitri after Pyron took them out early. Feeling a sudden increase of power coming from the location of the fight, the sultry clan leader was impressed. "Well now, for a human to generate this much power… maybe I should have claimed him first." At the same time, Demitri was sulking in the ruined city outskirts and trying to recover from having his pride smashed again. "This is not possible; he's become a Darkstalker…"

Forming a pair of energy balls in his open palms, Joe stood in front of Pyron holding a ball of white in his right hand… and a ball of darkness in his left. Breathing a little harder, the charging had drained some of his reserves. "I've generated a piece of pure Light Force and a piece of Dark Force. Normally, these two are kept away from each other."

_**Yes Yes, I know all about these 'forces'…**_ Pyron interrupted, becoming angrier with each second Joe did not do something new to the hyper-intelligent being. _**Hurry up and show me this "new thing" so I can finish erasing this world from my sight!**_

"Geez, someone's pushy today." Sparking heavily, the human began to give off unplanned shockwaves of energy. Making the earth shake violently, Joe started to push the two opposite forces of energy together. Resisting one another, the two energy balls were pushing back on each other as if night and day trying to exist at once. "See? These two refuse to play nice with each other… such has you in the Darkstalker World."

Down below, the already damaged stadium was beginning to collapse. The ground started to split from Joe's display of control over Light and Dark Force. Trying to keep control of the freshly baking move, the human panted heavily as Pyron watched on. _**If you wanted to be vaporized, I could have done that.**_ The enemy from space taunted as Joe shot a glare over. "Shut up." Stunned, Pyron felt an unknown manifestation coming from what he already decided on was just a human.

Unable to hold back anymore, Joe forced the two spheres together with a final push. Screaming in effort, the human created a swirling orb of white and black energy. A flash of light would spark from the combined energies occasionally from his cupped hands. "So, tell me… think you can understand this one Pyron!" Unlocking his arms, the energy creature tried to figure out this move. After a few moments of study, Pyron backed off a little. _**You created a black hole… still; I can absorb even the darkest of energies.**_

Smirking at the confidant enemy, Joe looked right at him. "Well then…" Moving his legs under the main bulk of his body, the floating human braced himself. "… let's see you take it! Raging…" Pushing his arms through the charged attack, a pulse was released as the ball flew out. "…CHAOS!" Taking off at a high rate of speed, the energy ball flew without hesitation or deviation for the horned foe.

_**Child's play…**_ Pyron echoed as the attack closed in. Spreading his arms wide, the energy being exposed his chest and took the new move head on. Crashing into Pyron, the attack knocked him back but did not destroy him. Stuck in the chest of a smirking alien, the swirling attack soon vanished as it was taken in whole inside Pyron.

Stunned looks were on the faces of all that watched the first ever combined force attack be swallowed up as if it were nothing. The only straight face was Joe's as he calmed his breathing to recover. _**See, just a human.**_ Scratching his face, Joe started to smile. "Then… how come I can still see my attack spinning inside your gut?"

_**WHAT?**_

Sure enough the dark and light force powered attack was still active. While most projectiles were absorbed into his form, this one was turning into a headache. Grunting, Pyron was trying to condense the attack down so it could be broken down later and made into power. _**What trick is this? I'm supposed to be able to absorb anything!**_

"Yea, anything you understand." Grinning, Joe hovered over and flicked the frozen Pyron's face with the intent to embarrass. "You thought you could understand it just by taking an attack and absorbing it? Who's the fool now?" Growling out in anger, Pyron found himself unable to move now. Struggling to make his limited body move to his will, the creature started to lose its cool.

"Forget it, you can't break it down… it's going to explode and once it does, no more you." Sighing out in a mix of fatigue and dire exhaustion, Joe's hair and eyes reverted to normal again. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, a heavy coating of fluids stained the palm of his callused hands. "I'm tired… you might survive that blast if you go back into deep space right away." Turning away from his frozen foe, the human started to float down towards the ground and his friends.

_**Me… defeated…?**_ Watching from his perch in the air over the now demolished stadium, Pyron's rage was peaking. Seeing Joe land and start conversing with the two Darkstalkers as if nothing happened between them broke the last barrier. Screaming out of frustration and an unleashing of his own power, a shocked look came over Joe's face as the remaining suns came into view. "Oh no…"

Dragging their spikes through the city, the once immobile objects sped towards their creator. _**I shall never be defeated again! **_Crushing anything in their way, trenches were dug out in the ground and through whole buildings. Crashing into Pyron at a high rate of speed, the sins began to fuse around the energy being. Roaring out in absolute power, a one-hundred-foot Pyron stood over the now puny city. _**It has finally come for me to play the end game.**_ Locking onto Joe who was standing right next to Felicia and Hsien-Ko, Pyron saw the human who had caused him so much torment. _**Prepare to die with the rest of this planet!**_

**To Be Continued!**

_Trailer for next time…_

When faced with a SUPER-sized problem, what will the Darkstalkers resort to doing.  
Even with a hyper powerful attack inside his body… Pyron has now become a huge issue.  
What new form of attack is needed to stop this galactic threat once and for all?

Joe: You'll just have to wait and see!

_Next time…_ **Episode Ten: Unlikely Team-ups**


	10. Unlikely Teamups

**Author Note:** There we go… starting to pump out longer chapters, but I think we need some tasty fillers.

Mmmmhmmmm… FILLER… not yet, need to make a certain alien go away first!

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**Episode Ten: Unlikely Team-ups**

Standing underneath a now super-sized alien, the trio of fighters was now at a loss for their next move. Not taking a rest, Pyron picked up his three thousand sized foot to end the frustration without delay. Snapping back to reality, Joe grabbed the two female Darkstalkers and vanished from the shadow of the lowering foot. Smashing into the ground, another half mile was left flattened by the pressure of Pyron's stomp. Roaring loudly, Joe was missing from view as Felicia and Hsien-Ko came to.

"Nya… ouchie…" Groaning softly, the tip of Felicia's tail had gotten singed from the attack. Cleaning off the charred fur, the weapon specialist shook debris from her hat. Looking around, it seemed Joe was blown further away than they were.

Pyron was actively looking for them, scanning the area for signs of movement from survivors. "Tch, will you just let me use the Dragon Technique now?" Popping off her sister's head, Mei-Lin appeared and shook in disapproval. "It is not time to throw away our chance to help mom…"

Sensing energy being released, Pyron noticed the two Darkstalkers. _**There you are!**_ Shocked, the two prepared to attack… but was interrupted by the sight of Pyron being turned into a one hundred foot glowing popsicle. The white ice spirit belonging to Donovan vanished as the dhampir arrived to the battle. "I thought I sensed a new Dark One… but it's just the cat." Noticing a collapsed wall, he sliced the brick surface open with his flame spirit. Revealing Joe, the freed human coughed heavily from the dust. "Where's that strength I sensed from you boy?"

"I assume it'd kill you to say hi once in a while?" Joe countered as Pyron exploded through his icy seal. Showering the scene in a mid-summer snow, the air sparkled before the flakes melted away quickly. _**Fool! You think I would fall to such a cheap trick?**_

A howl echoed through the ruins of the area as a flaming dragon crashed into the unsuspecting Pyron's head. Dropping the creature to the ground, Jon Talbain appeared and snarled at the sight of not one… but two Dark Hunters. "And to think I trusted you human!" Saying the same line at almost the exact time, the werewolf and dhampir were about to unleash hell on each other. Stepping between the two, Joe prevented another conflict.

"Hey, cut it out! We got enough problems to…" Flinching, the human grabbed the right side of his rib cage. While transporting Felicia and Hsien-Ko, he couldn't move fast enough and was thrown into a wall. The wall came down and ended up pushing a thin metal shard right into him. Blood dripped from his hand, as Joe found himself wounded badly.

Scoffing, Jon had seen what the human had done up to this point. Not looking to get involved at the start, the wolf was looking to take advantage and take revenge on Pyron for not pushing him past his limits to remove the curse. "You've fought my darker half… I'll help this time, but if you don't alert me to the next time it shows… I will kill you myself." Staring at the wolf-creature, Donovan put away his sword. "I shall keep that request and not hunt until this thing is put down."

Forcing out a smile, Joe was in serious pain. He pushed his body beyond the breaking point and the medicine he took wasn't working anymore. Feeling someone catch him from hitting the ground, he noticed Felicia's tail holding him up before putting an arm under his shoulders. "Thanks Felicia…" Noticing Pyron back on his feet, the Raging Chaos attack was still inside the giant alien's stomach.

"Hey…" Stopping the unusual team, Joe pointed up at the black and white area. "Aim for that, if you can break through his barrier… it'll go off."

Taking off to fight the glowing giant, Joe groaned out in pain as the werewolf and dhampir team headed out. Holding onto her wounded friend, Felicia was worried about the chaotic human's health. Sitting on the ground, Joe was forced to endure Hsien-Ko's treatment to halt the blood coming from his ribs. "Geez, you are too reckless…" Applying another swab of ointment on the open wound, Joe's eyes went wide as he screamed in pain from the burning. Felicia and Mei-Lin were holding the stubborn human down as the blue hunter sighed. "… you baby."

Meanwhile, the fight with Pyron was going as poorly as Joe's healing factor. Rushing up to the creature's head, Jon pummeled several hard strikes before being blown back. Catching hold of Pyron's left arm on the way down to the ground, the wolf was able to dash away from being crushed in between two large hands. Using the distraction, Donovan called out his lighting spirit to strike. Throwing a sparking fist at the alien, the spirit unleashed a wave of thunder bolts. Crashing into Pyron's barrier, the swirling attack inside the towering enemy was unchanged.

_**Some attack… and to think I thought this world was a challenge!**_ Charging another one of his Soul Smashers, the sphere was huge coming out of Pyron's left hand. Not wasting time, the alien let the attack go. Falling towards the new fighters, the sphere was massive as it vaporized anything it touched.

Appearing in front of the two-man team, Demitri threw aside his torn up cloak and growled in anger. Ignoring the hunter, the king of vampires took Pyron's attack head on. "DEMON BLAST!" Letting a shower of energy bats go, Demitri's continuous counter-attack began to weaken the incoming sphere. Growling from having to give out a lot of power, the vampire king hissed.

"Any time succubus!" Hovering over the men, Morrigan was enjoying the sight of seeing Demitri struggle. "Ok ok…" With a set of heavily scratched up wings, the head of Aensland House let a charged Soul Fist out of her right hand. Traveling through Demitri's attack, the Soul Fist absorbed some of the vampire's attack and broke through. _**WHAT?**_ Not expecting four former enemies to all team up at once, Pyron prepared to block the counter-projectile. _**Nice try, but I'm…**_

A howl rang in Pyron's head as Jon flew right at the exposed alien's face. Morrigan threw the werewolf up at the giant enemy per request. Using a chain of several Beast Rushes, the werewolf got into position quickly. Bouncing between Pyron's arms, Jon broke the guard and threw a hard vertical kick to start the combo. Opening a gash in the alien's stomach, the spinning projectile made its mark by turning the gash into an open crater. The energy from Joe's attack could be felt again now that the Raging Chaos was exposed.

"Amazing…" Morrigan was in disbelief and snapped out of her awe in time to avoid Donovan's sword. Hurling the uniquely shaped weapon quickly, Donovan was acting on part of Joe's plan. Groaning in pain, Pyron was finding it difficult to absorb several attacks at one time. The sun was starting to rise and the first few ray of light shined on the flying sword. Noticing the glimmering object, Donovan was riding the weapon to guide it to hit the swirling target.

Donovan changed into his deity form and readied to kick Joe's absorbed attack. Forcing the open wound to close at his will, Pyron caught the transformed hunter by his right leg. Smirking, the alien caught the sword, hidden inside the spirit, before it could pierce the absorbed attack. _**Not this time Hunter! **_Slamming an arm through the large spirit's extended leg; the spirit was dispersed as the sword was left sticking out of Pyron's gut.

Panting heavily, the four Darkstalkers were drained… the four person attack had taken a lot of energy out of them. _**So weak… VANISH!**_ Glowing brightly, Pyron let another burst of energy go. Throwing the four night warriors aside, Morrigan bounced off the ground as her bats vanished from taking too much damage, Demitri tried grabbing the ground and was thrown through a collapsing building, and Donovan smashed a hole in the earth as Jon bounced off the shell of a destroyed car.

Standing over the scene, Pyron had shrunk down to a quarter of his giant form. Without any more power reserves, the alien had to condense his form to summon another attack. Not seeing any of the 'sub-creatures' moving this time, Pyron laughed. _**Finally! I can now destroy this world!**_

"Not on my watch!" Looking out at the area, Pyron didn't see anyone until it was too late. From the area of the sun, a single silhouette suddenly became two. With a head of silver hair, Joe cracked a hard roundhouse kick to Pyron's face. Backing off, the human was standing under the twenty-five foot alien groaning and holding onto his ribs. _**Stupid human, you had a shot to stop me and failed!**_

"Did I really?"

_**What are you talking about?**_

Jumping off Joe's shoulders, Felicia threw herself at Pyron. Realizing the tactic, Pyron threw a punch and missed as the feline fighter spun around his arm with her claws. Letting go, Felicia released the rest of her EX Force and Delta-Kicked Donovan's sword deep into the energy being. Cutting into the Raging Chaos, the seal around Joe's attack was broken and allowed the attack to continue as planned.

_**!**_

The chaotic energy unleashed inside Pyron exploded outwards. Unable to control the chain reaction inside his body, the alien was left stunned as it began to consume him. _**Impossible… this is not possible! I AM PYRON!**_ Left with a gaping hole in him, Pyron collapsed in on himself. Pulled into a wormhole caused by the twisting energies, a light consumed the area as the explosive reaction continued on.

_Several weeks later…_

The world was just coming out of shock of nearly being destroyed by an unknown force. Several of the world's government demanded answers as a huge section and population of New York was just gone with no apparent reason. No radioactivity was located in the area and terror groups from around the world were not taking responsibility. Watching TV from the basement of their camp, Jeff was taking a break from helping rebuild the damaged Phobos to watch the idiot news casters blame each other for the events of the past few weeks.

Remembering the aftermath of Pyron's defeat by the Darkstalkers, the area was still smoldering as the technology loving human pulled out of town. Finding the road back home was easier than arriving into the city, the big rig truck was absorbed by Phobos after its cargo was unloaded. Consuming all of the otherwise stolen truck, the golden machine was using the material to help rebuild its body. The only thing left was to make sure the fine tuning was completed and after piloting the brave machine, Jeff was starting to understand how Huitzil machinery worked.

"Hmm?" Hearing the door click open to his underground repair shop, Cecil was worried about his metal friend. Smiling, Jeff pointed at a semi-active Phobos. **Master Cecil is safe… main program is still in effect.** Shutting down again, the robot still needed to be worked on. "Don't worry; I'll have him up and about in a day or so. You haven't seen my brother around have you?" Shaking his head, the little human was more concerned about his mechanical friend.

At the family camp, the local cat women were busy trying to find Felicia. After her surprising victory against Pyron, Pico got ripped out by Grace for not listening and sneaking off to the fight. Unable to locate the feline savior, Lucy fumed at the idea Felicia had snuck off again. "I bet she's with that damn human again… that's the fourth time this week alone!"

"Leave them alone." Grace spoke up. Being the eldest of the group made it easy for her to settle down the others. "You know they deserve a little time off, so just relax… not like they are doing anything wrong."

"That's what you think!" Lucy countered, still more than against the idea of having her friend being so close to a human of all creatures.

However, Lucy was far from being right about the two going off alone. Sitting under a full tree on a hill away from any kind of civilization, Joe and Felicia were sleeping a sunny Thursday afternoon away. In the lap of the slumbering human, Felicia… in her full cat form flicked her ears a little before curling up against Joe's warm left leg. The scene was perfect… unless you were in a little known dimension in the Darkstalker World.

Standing in the pulsing area, Dami was watching several thousand souls being pulled into a strangely shaped jar. As the glowing spheres were sucked into the container, the black haired clone looked back to notice someone coming up through the floor. "Ah, there you are Jedah." Phasing up through his own dimensional floor, a revived "savior" smirked at the collection of souls being gathered. "Looks like your little plan is going well… but remember our deal. I broke the seal on your dimension and promised to give you the strongest souls."

"Yes…" Stretching out his blade-like wings, Jedah Dohma… the self-proclaimed messiah of the Dark Ones was indeed alive. Morrigan indeed shredded Jedah into scrap with a combo of Soul Blade and Darkness Cannon. But, because of the confidant noble's ability to conform his liquid body to any form… the pure essence of his being was not damaged. I thank you for the few strong souls that you did provide… but it is not enough." Smirking, Dami waved off Jedah's complaint and complied. "I'll go hunt down a few more for you then."

Vanishing from the dimension, the evil clone of a victorious Joe had made a pact with the devil itself. Looking down at the floor, Jedah summoned a small table that held a chess board. The board was populated with small figurines of all of those who fought against him. The figures belonging to Anakaris, Bulleta, Bishamon, Lilith, Lord Raptor, Rikuo, Sasquatch, Q-Bee and Victor were all colored black. In contrast… Demitri, Felicia, Hsien-Ko, Jon Talbain, and Morrigan's figures were all colored white.

"Heh, I wonder how these pawns will handle their new roles?" Laughing heavily with his plan, a pair of eyes moved back into the shadows from the scheming Jedah as figures used to represent Dami and Joe were standing behind their respective sides. Modeled in white, Joe stood behind his unofficial team and Dami modeled in black behind the larger team.

**End of Episode 10**

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_Trailer for the next episode:_

Time makes people forget events that seem too unbearable to deal with… in this case, the media is unable to let go of tragic events. While trying to find information with what happened to NYC, the secret of a life-time is about to be unleashed.

Joe: What do you mean interview?  
Jeff: Yep, turns out that someone has footage of Felicia destroying Pyron.  
Felicia: YAY! I get to be a superstar in several worlds~  
Joe: Fame isn't all it's cracked up to be Felicia.

_Next time…_ **Episode Eleven: 24/7 Insanity**

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**Author Note:** Did I bring the Pyron Arc to an end too quickly? Otherwise, R+R!


	11. 24,7 Insanity

**Author Note:** Sorry for the delay, I WANTED to release this one on my birthday on Wednesday but things called MvC3, MK9 and TF2 got in the way… my bad.

* * *

Also, I believe I have been giving the short shaft to my other OC Jeff… what do you think?

**Episode Eleven: 24/7 Insanity**

A full month had passed since the end of Pyron on the Earth. Life for those who had successfully defended the little blue planet had returned to normal…. Or as normal has having a family of cat women and a super-powered human could get. Not to mention the fact that a killer robot was being repaired in the basement of the two-story home. Taking a break from working on his unofficial partner, Jeff had taken the top half of the lead unit of Huitzil and set it up to talk with Cecil. It was a little surprising taking orders from the robot on how to assist in fixing itself. While the top half took damage that the auto-repairs could handle, the legs were completely trashed and needed to be repaired manually.

Grabbing a bottle of water, the truly human ally of Darkstalkers brought his laptop out of sleep mode to find an urgent email. "Huh? What's this thing?" Opening up the message, the bottle fell out of his hand and hit the floor. Bouncing under his chair, the cap was still on as Jeff reached for his cell phone. Smashing in a well dialed number, the line was picked up by Alto.

"Hi J-J!" The young catgirl was still being brought up by Grace and was not able to pronounce Jeff's name yet. "Why are you calling here… you looking to talk to Lucy are you?"

"What? No, is Grace near?" The catgirl yelled for her 'mother' as the feline's high pitched voice rung Jeff's ear drum. Hearing the oldest of the seven cats take the phone, Grace reminded the little one that yelling isn't proper. "Sorry about that…"

"Its fine Grace, hey is Joe around there? I know what day it is, so he doesn't have his phone with him." Looking at a calendar nailed to a nearby wall, every third day was circled in blue at the camp. "Ah that's right. Don't worry, I'll send someone to get him."

Deep in the woods, an isolated meadow was being used as a make-shift sparing area. Fighting against the chaotic human, Felicia was trying to take a bell from her instructor. Tied around the front of a baseball cap, Joe came up with the idea to increase Felicia's striking speed. "Come on, you almost had me that time…" Panting, Felicia had been trying to get the silver bell for over two hours non-stop without taking a break. "How about we stop and grab some lunch?"

Focusing her eyes on the non-transformed Joe, he was simply using the stamina Donovan helped to develop during his training. "No… not yet." Rolling right towards the human, Felicia had a suddenly used her Rolling Buckler. Breaking into an uppercut, Joe's eyes shimmered as he jumped up and flew out of the catwoman's reach. "That's not fair! You said no special moves today!" Hovering out of the reach of an upset Felicia, Joe pointed back down at his blue haired student. "Right, you were the one who broke the rule first. Besides… flying isn't really a special move since it's more of a skill."

"That's still unfair…" Felicia fumed under her breath. Looking up at Joe, he didn't move any higher than to avoid her initial upper-cut. Springing off the ground, the feline wasn't done just yet against a flying opponent.

Extending her claws, Felicia took a swipe at the bell and missed as Joe knocked her paws aside. "Nice try…" The unsuccessful catwoman had passed by, but the human had forgotten about Felicia's tail. Using her momentum and weight, Felicia had caught Joe by the arm and threw him to the ground. Recovering from the light toss, Joe landed on his feet and looked up to see Felicia's smirking smile. _Oh crap._

Smashing right into her teacher, the grass was kicked up some as Joe found himself pinned underneath Felicia. Grabbing the hat with her tail, the catwoman smiled down at him and purred happily. "Looks like I win…" Held down by Felicia's large paws, Joe was pinned in defeat as he did promise no special moves and anything outside of using his energy moves was indeed special. "Ok, you win."

Climbing off, Felicia sat back on the grass and shaped her paws down to something near human-sized hands minus the long cat nails. Sitting up, Joe noticed the change and questioned. "When did you pick that up?" Looking at her converted paws, Felicia answered. "This? Grace has been teaching me how to turn human… but I can only seem to manage small portions at a time." Frowning in disgust, Felicia suddenly became unusually quiet.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you suddenly trying to take a human form Felicia?" Smiling at her teacher, she shook her head in response. "Sorry… that's a secret." Winking at the human, Joe took the chance to pounce the unsuspecting catwoman. Pinning her back to the ground, he chuckled and stared right into her green eyes. "Come on tell me… you know I won't tell."

Struggling playfully under the hatless human, the pair stopped when they sensed someone was watching the whole thing. Rolling out from being a bush, a large orange ball stopped by Joe's hat as the ball cracked open. Looking confused, Nonno was looking at the two from insider her ball. Peeking at the human and cat woman, she popped out her head and frowned. "Are you two supposed to be fighting?" The little neko asked as Joe climbed off Felicia.

Moving towards the ball, a cell phone was thrown out into his hands. Unlocking the device's touchscreen, there were several missed calls… all from the same number. "Oh man, Jeff's been trying to reach me?"

"Yep, something about Felicia being on TV… or something." Closing up her ball, the orange sphere took off back to the camp. Looking at Felicia, the mature feline was stretching out on the grass. Trying not to stare at the curvy former entertainer, Joe opened up a text message with a video attached. Playing the clip made the human's mouth drop. "No way…"

"What is it?" Transforming into her cat form, Felicia hopped onto Joe's head and peered down at his phone.

A grainy video showing Felicia kicking Pyron in the stomach had somehow been captured by a damaged security camera from the stadium. The camera had been recording the whole fight against Pyron, but due to several glitches… most of the footage was ruined by the battle. Only the ten seconds of Felicia's kick and then the exploding alien were shown to the world. To make things even worse, the small video had been leaked onto the internet.

At the camp, the younger catgirls only had Pico's story about the fight to go off of about Pyron getting defeated. Cheering on their feline friend, Lucy and Grace had hoped something like this never happened while in a world that isn't their own. "What's the big deal anyway?" Joe asked while getting out a drink of juice. "This world needs heroes anyway; we don't get to see stuff like this here."

"You moron!" Lucy shouted as her voice made the human gag on his drink. "Think for a second… in this world, we don't have the same rights as we do in our own. If someone was to capture one of us…"

"That won't happen." Looking at the time, Joe was supposed to help out with the afternoon shift at the family restaurant. "Crap… I'm going to be late." Grabbing his jacket and sunglasses, the human headed for the door. Strapping his sneakers around his feet, Joe was stopped by someone throwing an apple at him. "Don't be eating all of that greasy restaurant food, I like my trainer lean." Felicia teased as Lucy realized what Nonno meant by the two as 'playing' and went after Joe. Taking the sound of paw on floor boards as a warning, the human was airborne in seconds. Out of earshot of an angry feline, Joe chuckled and took off for work.

Floating above the clouds, the human was on his back trying to figure out something. _Felicia sure changed since we first met… almost as if she's…_ Hearing the roar of a jet engine, a jumbo-liner was being chased by a couple of Huitzil. A few hundred thousand feet in the sky, the machines were about to fire on the aircraft. "Oh shit!" Firing a beam, Joe destroyed one of the two flying death machines as it locked onto the jet's left wing. "Hey, Darkstalker right here guy… big mean threatening target!"

Raising his power into A-Class, Joe's hair bleached again into the cloud white color due to the chaotic energy as the remaining machine re-aimed. **Darkstalker located… proceeding with termination.** Firing missiles at the floating human, Joe countered by hurling an apple at the projectiles. Passing harmlessly by, the missiles crashed into the human and exploded. **Target neutrali-** The gray robot was silenced as its head was torn clean off at the neck. Ripping the vital section off the Huitzil, Joe punted the head into the distance before detonating the body with a blast. _"Aww shit, I forgot Jeff needed parts… guess he'll just have to make do at the dump." _The aircraft was miles away by the time the pilots knew that their unwelcomed guests were gone.

Arriving at work several minutes late, Joe landed behind the restaurant's dumpster and tried to sneak into the back after changing into his work clothes. Peeking through an open window, there was no sign of anyone to rip him out for being late. _Awesome… no one's in the kitchen now._ Swinging his backpack over a shoulder, the smirking human went straight to clock in… but had his time card snatched away. "Late again bro…? You need to leave you little 'friend' alone."

Stuck on clean-up detail, Joe was demoted to close up the place alone. After a lackluster day of serving the standard menu, it seemed that without the 'special' on tap… the crowds were back to their pre-Darkstalker size. While it was only seven months since the cat women stopped showing for work, it seemed like forever since the little restaurant enjoyed the lively energy of those cat people. A strange sensation coursed through his mind as the human shut his eyes and smiled. "Ok, come out Morrigan." The chorus of bats appeared for their mistress as the aqua haired woman appeared in her 'casual' attire. "You've been sitting there all day huh?"

"Give a girl some credit, it's hard to avoid someone who can sense energy." Sitting on the counter of the bar, a bat reached for a bottle of gin before Joe knocked it back with a broom handle. Frowning, the succubus stared at the denying human. "Geez, you're no fun… no wonder you haven't scored with kitty yet."

"Knock it off Morrigan." Putting the broom away, he tossed the apron into the laundry chute and sighed. "You never just visit… so, did you find a way back home for you guys?" Shaking her head, the bat woman looked distressed. "It is strange… the source of energy that brought us all here was you."

"Me? Come on, you know full well I'm limited to what the Chaos Force can do." Waving off the thought of being some kind of mass transportation device for Darkstalkers was a joke to the human. Yes, flight and enhanced combat was one thing… but being able to carry over several highly deadly night warriors into his world was something else. "Besides, even if I could… how do I know it'd work again?" Joe questioned.

Chuckling slyly, Morrigan slid towards the human on the freshly cleaned bar. Staring up at the average looking male, the alluring creature couldn't help but notice the change in this one's demeanor while dragging herself closer. "Oh, you'd find a way if need be…" Hovering up towards an open skylight, the woman changed into her true form in a flash. "If you're too careful… someone else might adopt your little pet before you do."

"What?" Turing around, Joe had his back to the now vanished succubus. Finding his late night visitor gone, something in the barroom mirror caught his attention. A small kiss shaped mark was imprinted on his cheek as a single strand of aqua-green hair was mixed into his dull brown hair. "Damn it Morrigan, quit taunting me! Go play with your boy-toy Demitri!"

Trying to scrub off the kiss mark with a washcloth, Joe was finding it difficult to remove. Even two hot showers proved that this wasn't simple demonic lipstick. _Damn… did she use magic to bond it to me…?_ Sighing, the human plopped down onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.

"It's just lipstick stupid…" Jeff answered his worried older sibling as he checked on the chaotic warrior once arriving home. Setting down a rather crude looking scanner, it was made partly from Phobos' designs, a way of showing thanks for helping with the repairs to its gold body. Cecil and his metal parent had left early that afternoon once repairs were completed. Mostly over the fact that the gold robot still saw Joe as a threat and still was programmed to 'protect the boy'. "I'm sure you'll wipe it off in time, just like everything else you've done…" The hazel eyed tech genius muttered under his breath. "What was that?"

"Nothing, just get to bed. We got to go shopping since it's our day off."

Realizing that by having to scrap all the custom equipment built over nearly a year, Jeff was feeling a little jaded. Losing his only way to prove himself against Darkstalkers left an invisible wound in the non-powered human's heart. "I should make it up to him… but I can't make a super killer robot listen to a Darkstalker, can I?"

Morning came quickly as the two brothers headed out to handle shopping for the restaurant's monthly supplies. Stopping at a local grocery, the owner came out to meet the duo. "Hey, you guys hire back that chef of the chowder?"

"Sorry, she's currently on leave…" Disappointed, the owner led the way to the meat counter to cash out their order for the next month. Looking around, Joe noticed the cover on a few newspapers of him shooting down the attacking Huitzil. Flipping the cover over to the back, he hid the photos from Jeff as the brother came out. "What's with you? I know you turn 25 soon, but really…"

Walking out of the store, the alarms all started to go off at once. Several people were shouting as a masked individual came storming out of the store with a gun. Waving it around, bystanders ducked aside out of fear that they would be a target. Coming out of the story with a bag full of money, the criminal chuckled as he ran past Jeff and knocked his PDA to the ground.

Smashing on impact, the device that had the list of groceries was now useless. "Ha, LOSER! The offender got a decent head start from anyone who could catch him to his car. Revving his engine, the car peeled out and headed for the road. "Joe… just do it."

Hearing the sirens of first responders starting to grow louder, the criminal was about to blow past the police… up until a stream of smoke started to emit from the engine. Rolling out of the car, it cut to the left and went crashing into a lamp post in the parking lot. Gasping, the stunned criminal couldn't understand why his finely tuned automobile crashed. Laughter could be heard as Joe had his back to the angry crook. "You thought that was funny?"

Taking aim, the criminal took three shots at the snickering male just as the cops arrived to tackle him to the ground and preventing any more shots. "Hmm?" A flicker of white followed by an audible gasp was heard as Joe was left standing with three bloodless rounds in between his left fingers. "What? Did someone see that guy crash?" Those who saw it couldn't believe that a local guy was the 'silver defender' from the newspapers. Grabbing his hair, it was stuck on 'chaos mode' and wouldn't fade away as the three bullets hit the ground. "Uh oh…" Jeff just stood still with a well-deserved hand over his disgusted face.

**End of Episode 11**

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_Trailer for the next episode:_

With their secret blown, it didn't take much for the small town to become a mad place…

Jeff: Good going, you ruined our lives!  
Joe: Hey, if I didn't sense the bullets… someone might have gotten killed!  
Jeff: Someone did… it's called our privacy!

_Next time…_ **Episode Twelve: Chaotic Birthday**

Alto/Nana/Mimi/Nonno/Pico: PARTY~!


	12. Chaotic Birthday

**Author Note:** I know I should be writing the end of these fillers and get back to the true meat of the story… let's see how everything flushes out.

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**Episode Twelve: Chaotic Birthday**

Due to the unplanned release of Joe's chaotic form in public, it was not possible to keep the local secret anymore. Several cell phone photos of the silver haired human had been posted onto the internet and multiple television stations were fighting for the best position to catch another glimpse of the abnormal male in town. The only true recourse that he had left was the family camp tucked deep away in the mountains of upstate New York. Lucky for everyone involved, the camp sat on a hidden private road that was covered up with wild grass and was impossible to see from the main road without knowing it was there. Sitting on the floor of the large camp, Joe was watching himself on TV and sighed out as the photos of a shocked human continued to be replayed every newscast. _There goes any chance to try and get the cats back as waitresses…_ While the news that a popular celebrity was locally grown, it didn't help that the restaurant was stuffed with nothing but media personal looking to score the first interview.

Just as he turned off the TV, someone punched the male in the back of his head. _That's it! Someone's dea-_ Feeling up the sore lump on his noggin and cursing under his breath, Joe turned around and prepared to slug whoever was responsible for hitting him unprovoked. "Oh… it's you Lucy." While normally it would be perfect to turn around and counter-attack the offender, the bandanna wearing feline was in her full human form and clothed in a combo of jeans and a short cut black t-shirt. The daily smacks were common whenever Joe failed to sense the feline's strike in time. "What do you want now… did Jeff send you here to punch me again? I said I was sorry!"

"No you idiot, Felicia sent me here to tell you that we need more milk." Shopping for a set of eight cat women was easy: Milk and Fish in bulk. If the little ones are good… the occasional non-Grace approved treat of peanut brittle. While the eldest feline was against giving the young felines the human made treat, Joe had assembled a team of cat girls who trusted their silver haired ally greatly. His wallet was thrown at him by the commanding cat woman as Joe stood up and scoffed. "I don't have a problem with going shopping for you guys, but how do you expect me NOT to draw attention?" A pair of sunglasses and a baseball cap were then dropped on him from above. Looking up, the twin catgirls Nana and Mimi were laughing and enjoying how Felicia's close human friend reminded them of the animated hero shows on TV.

Taking off on a bicycle towards a small corner store down the road, Lucy sighed and walked back into the kitchen as the smell of something baking started to fill the camp. Working at the table, Felicia was trying her best to create a cake for their resident hero. The kitchen was a mess as the lone attempt was nothing but a roasted shell of a cake. A ruined pan was in the trash as Grace was now helping the hyper famous feline work on the second attempt. "Thanks Grace…." Felicia squeaked out in shame and continued to wipe off the flakes of toasted batter from an apron around her normally semi-nude body. Smiling at the young cat woman, the elder feline simply smiled and took out a non-charred cake from the oven. "Hey, it's ok… no one's a one person army." The smiling Grace's left ear twitch as she commented. "Lucy… get away from the frosting you sneak." Caught like a bandit, the harsh speaking Lucy backed off not wanting to spite the elder feline.

Arriving at the corner store, the area was quiet for being a Wednesday. Reading a few of the covers of newspapers all of the headlines made Joe out to be some kind of hero. However… many of the opinion articles inside were questionable as they accused him of being the cause of the devastation and loss of life in New York. _Pyron didn't care who he killed… he'd kill the whole planet if not stopped._ Tossing the rag aside, he grabbed a couple gallons of 2% milk and walked up to the counter. The older man behind the counter was working on ringing out the simple purchase as Joe noticed something behind the normal man's head. "Sorry, could I get a pack of smokes please?" Pointing at a display to the old man's right, the disguised hero smiled and quickly reached behind to grab something outside the shop owner's attention. "My bad, I just realized my friend doesn't smoke." Taking both jugs from the counter, he left behind the correct change and headed out for home. With both jugs of milk in one heavy bag, the cycling Joe was out of sight before stopping to look at what was caught. A black and green fly looking as if it was from a terrible horror movie was about to bite the kind owner's neck. "What the hell is this?"

"It's a Majigen insect…" Hearing the echoing voice, Joe expected to be visited by Morrigan again. Before he could react, John Talbain in his human form had jumped down from a tree limb and startled the chaotic human. Recovering, Joe was glad to see someone else from the fight after Pyron. John was bedridden for a few days after the combat and at night was almost unable to be controlled due to his wild rage from being beaten. Grace was able to put the wolf in place with a hard backhand and a swift jab to his sore ribs. Alto soon called him "Uncle Jonny" due to witnessing Grace giving more attention to the injured fighter while he was laid out. "Majigen insect? Sorry… I wasn't around for the fight against Jedah, but Felicia filled me in about the crazy stuff in there."

"Those insects are only supposed to exist in that dark world… they were used to steal souls from the living to power that 'savior's' jar." Reaching up into the air, John plucked another insect in his hand and smashed it easily. "They're weak to those who have the darkness in them, but they thrive on those who do not. However, I've noticed more of them arriving... seems that light creature's destruction is a signal to them to come out." Not saying anything, Joe was wondering if destroying Pyron was indeed the correct move now that a new threat was taking the prideful creature's place. "Don't worry about it; you aren't someone they would fight with."

"Right… hey, Grace told me if I saw you to…" Mentioning the feline's name made Jon nervous and he vanished as Joe turned to speak with the wolf warrior. Smirking, it was apparent that the oldest cat woman had made her mark on the lone wolf. Heading back towards the camp, Joe was back on the main road and unaware of the dealings at camp. Sliding the bike back next to the grill, the silver haired male removed the restraining cap and glasses. _I wonder why they sent me out to pick up more milk… I thought there was a full gallon and a half in the fridge already._ Sighing, Joe walked in and found the camp was quiet. "Uh guys…?" Hearing shuffling around in the kitchen, Joe pulled the door open and was pounced by a five-member team of cat girls. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Shocked at the presence of a fresh cake and the sudden appearance of his brother with the cat women, Joe got up with one of his 'attackers' still sitting on his shoulders. "What's going on around here? This is why you sent me out…?" Nodding, Alto was on his shoulders and pointed at Felicia. "… Felicia worked hard, wanted to see you smile again." Turning around, Felicia was blushing in embarrassment from being exposed so quickly. Blinking, Joe was being pushed by the other little felines as he surrendered and chuckled. "Ok ok, I'll join you crazy cats." Cheering happily, the kittens wanted to tell him all day… but were threatened by Grace if they spilled the secret before they were ready.

Several hours passed by and it had gotten dark outside… from the kitchen laugher could be heard as Jeff had a recording of Phobos' memories of the fight before it was knocked out of commission. The part of Joe catching fire was replayed several times due to the ridiculous look on his face. Grinning and bearing the torture… the cake was down to a few pieces as Alto yawned out. Tired from the day's action… the little feline was starting to doze off on Joe's shoulders. Resting her head on the chaotic warrior's hair, it was soft and comfy. Not spiky and sharp as previously thought. "Uh oh… we got people falling asleep." Grace commented at her adoptive daughter passing out.

"I'm not tired!" Standing up quickly, Pico proved she was not tired… but that changed as her knees wobbled and Lucy had to grab her tail to keep from crashing to the floor. Handing the already out-cold Alto to her mother-figure Grace, the other little cats followed Lucy and Jeff up to their rooms leaving behind Felicia and Joe. Alone in the kitchen, the human was trying to come up with something to break the silence with the cat warrior. "Um… thanks."

"Huh?"

"Well, its just I kinda forgot about how nice normal life can be…" Moving towards the window, the sky was clear with a full moon. The moonlight was coming in and reflecting a little off of Joe's unnatural hair. Rubbing away some sleep dust from her own eyes, Felicia flicked it away with her tail. Smiling at the human, the cat woman answered. "You forgot?" Giggling a little at his statement, Felicia could not help herself. "And Morrigan calls me simple minded…" Shaking his head, Joe didn't agree with that idea. "No, its not that… just thanks Felicia." Smiling directly at the feline, the blue haired ex-entertainer was moving closer to the birthday boy. Leaning in suddenly, Joe turned and caught the feline against his chest before she fell onto the floor. "Felicia…?" A cloud went over the bright moon and darkened the room as Felicia looked up at her catcher.

In a different dimension… Jedah was getting frustrated. While Dami had allowed him the resources to start collecting souls for his master plan – to unite all souls as one entity and restart existence, the collection rate was lower than he wanted. _If this rate continues, those who interfered last time will notice and react again. How can I speed up the process?_ Smirking evily, the dark savior released a few souls into the Makai World with one simple order. "Bring me the souls of the dark… and kill anyone who interferes!" Knowing full well his ally Dami would notice, Jedah had plans for possible backlash already at work.

"Master Dami!" Running back into Demitri's captured throne room, Helicia came in to alert her dark master. Pushing open the throne room doors… only Gallon was there to greet her. Not paying any attention to the dark wolf, the feline born of darkness was still looking for her master. "Where's Dami?" Growling lowly, Gallon didn't answer right away. "Tell me!"

"Since you are asking so nicely…" A flash went past the black furred feline's stomach and cleaved out a large wound. Groaning and grabbing her sliced open body, blood started to flow out and onto the floor. "He said to take out the trash, starting with you." Tossing aside the blood on his right claw, Gallon started to move closer to the wounded cat. Taking a random swipe at her attacker, Helicia couldn't land a blow on him no matter how close Gallon was. "Why can't I hit you?" Gasping, the feline felt something grab her neck from behind and squeeze tight.

"So weak…" Walking a gasping and bleeding cat towards a closed window, Gallon pushed a frightened feline's face up against the glass. Cracking softly, the glass surface started to splinter from the force of being used as a wall. "Before we part ways, I'll confess… I knew you'd attack me. No matter how much you ignore it, you and that cat are the same." Pulling back, Gallon threw the defenseless kitty into the glass and watched it shatter. Staring up at the sky of the human world, Helicia finally realized that she was just a clone. Reaching up with a bloody paw, tears swelled up as she whispered something before the wounded animal fell towards the ground.

Waking up suddenly, Felicia found herself in bed and groaned. _Oh god… did I oversleep again?_ Feeling something lumpy underneath her cat woman body, Joe was under a blanket and mere inches from the feline's face. Frozen, Felicia realized that she fell asleep due to pushing herself during the daytime hours and transformed into a cat. That in mind, the kind hearted Joe must have carried her up to his room and let the cat sleep with him. Something hard was brushing up against Felicia's stomach and made the cat woman blush deeply. Reaching down, it turned out to be nothing more than her own tail. _Figures, no one would want a freak like me…_

Just then, someone started knocking on Joe's door. "Hey wake up, we got a problem!" Hearing the jingling of keys, Felicia jumped up and over the divider wall that separated the rooms. The jumping around woke up the sleeping male who was unaware of his night-time visitor. Seeing Jeff in a panic, Joe wasn't fully awake yet. "What's the problem… its like nine in the morning." Hit in the face with a thrown t-shirt, Jeff was visibly upset. "It's the kittens… they aren't waking up."

"WHAT?" In the other room, Felicia was shaking. She knew what this could mean… _No way, he's dead… he can't be doing it again!_

**End of Episode 12**

* * *

Trailer for the next episode:

_For unknown reasons, the five little cat girls will not wake up. Leaving their friends confused and upset__… and one cat woman, highly nervious._

Jeff: Who could do this…?

Joe: Only one person… J-

Felicia: NOOO! *runs off*

Joe: Felicia?

Next time… **Episode Thirteen: Return to the Dark**

* * *

**AN:** Fair warning, the darker aspects of the world of Darkstalkers are coming up… you've been warned.


	13. Return to the Dark

**Author Note:** Yea yea I know… it's not cool to go after the kids, but remember this isn't anime!

* * *

**Episode Thirteen: Return to the Dark**

Laid out on the soft carpet of the camp's living room, the five cat girls were still 'sleeping'. Checking for vital signs, everything seemed to be normal as Jeff put away the large orange med-kit and sighed out in frustration. "I don't get it… they were all fine last night, but now they won't wake up? This isn't making any sense." Looking down at the abnormal scene, Joe was used to seeing all of the kittens running around, playing and getting on everyone's nerves. Seeing all of them like this touched something inside the chaotic human male. But that all changed as he snapped back to reality and noticed someone was missing. "Hey, where's Felicia?" Looking around, Grace and Lucy didn't recall when she left. After being notified of the situation with the little ones, Felicia had walked off into the kitchen without a word.

_She wouldn't… _Running into the kitchen, the room was empty as the only thing amiss was a wide open window. Not something for someone to crawl through… it was big enough for a cat to sneak out of. _Damn it Felicia!_ Moving towards the door, Joe threw on his green jacket and was lacing up his sneakers when Jeff wandered in to see what the problem was. "Joe, where are you going off to?" Slapping his silver brother's shoulder softly, a shock went through the non-powered male's body. "Sorry, I need to go check on something." Leaving right away, the door closed behind the determined human as he took off into a cloudy morning sky.

Off in another part of the woods, Felicia had found what she was looking for in the form of another Darkstalker. Smelling the scent of the succubus Morrigan nearby, Felicia acted on instinct and went after the soul hunting creature without question. Ambushing the aqua-haired individual in the neighboring lake, an enraged cat woman had started to battle with the normally 'friendly' Morrigan. "What's wrong kitty? Didn't get your ears scratched last ni-?" Jumping into the air, the sultry woman had to hover above a wave of earth kicked up by the angry Felicia. Looking down at a panting and fuming cat woman, Morrigan was confused at why someone who normally avoided battle was actively seeking her out.

Before she knew it, the feline was jumping straight up at her with claws drawn to inflict serious damage. Avoiding the full frontal attack, one of Morrigan's wings had been cut into by one of Felicia's nails. _When did she get so good…? _Rolling into a ball, Felicia spun and redirected her energy from the ground to throw herself back into the air. Throwing a hard upper cut, Felicia was ready to cleave Morrigan apart with her attack. "I've had enough!"However, the hovering demon was more than ready this time. Changing her thruster-like backpack into a series of pointed spears, Morrigan forced Felicia into defense and smacked her with the side of a spear. Whipping the cat to the ground hard, Morrigan wasn't done with Felicia just yet. A charged-up Soul Fist was launched at the recovering cat woman before she could recover from the crash.

From the sky, a beam of light intercepted the skull shaped attack before it had a chance to chomp down on a face-down Felicia. A half second later, a beam of dark energy forced Morrigan back from the downed feline as it burned away the grass. Landing in the scorched spot, Joe's eyes were staring up at Morrigan as she came down and stood in front of him. "What's the deal Morrigan? I thought you didn't like to fight the weak… so why are you picking a fight and stealing the little one's souls?" Scoffing at the notion of the one who helped take down Pyron, the bats in the succubus' hair vanished as she sat on a cloud of bats. "That's twice now I've been accused of stealing souls… and for the record, I didn't start this. SHE did." A finger was pointed right at a growling Felicia. "You stole my friend's souls!" Grabbing Felicia around her waist, Joe had to put the fiery feline into a strong bear-hug to keep her away from the high Class-A creature. Digging up the ground with her clawed feet, Felicia was dead set on wanting to fight. "Who else has the ability to do that?"

"What about Jedah?" Morrigan countered. The name made the green eyed kitty suddenly freeze up. "Oh, so you do remember what happened in that dimension." Yawning and stretching herself out, Morrigan was bored now. Looking at the large haired feline, it was apparent that this Darkstalker knew full well what was happening to her own friends. "A little advice human?" Throwing another Soul Fist at the motionless Felicia, Joe deflected the attack with his left arm and sent it smashing into a tree. Looking for the attacker, Morrigan was gone except for a single bat to echo a message. "I don't take kindly to those who interrupt my baths, next time… I expect satisfaction."

Not sensing Morrigan anymore, Joe let Felicia go; the blue haired cat woman fell to her furry knees and stared at the ground. Not sure of what to say next, the beaten cat woman slammed her paws into the earth and started to cry. "It's not fair! I was right there… why couldn't I help them?" Landing on the torn earth, the normally joyful cat woman has showering the dirt with her tears. As if on cue, the sky started to rain on top of the duo in the forest. Not moving from her position, Felicia's hair got soaked and fell against her back. Leaning over the hunched feline, Joe put his jacket over the emotional cat and kneeled down. "Don't blame yourself; I was there too… if something was wrong we both would have sensed it." Without warning, Felicia looked up at Joe with her eyes still full of tears. Leaning into him, the cat woman continued to sob over the apparent loss of her friends' souls and her lack of power to stop it.

Back at the camp, Lucy was pacing around out of being nervous. It had been over three hours since Joe went looking for Felicia and the rain started. With no end of the rain in sight, the tension was starting to build up inside the camp. Anyway to track them down by scent was worthless as the rain had washed away any traces of the silver male's scent. "I can't take it anymore! I'm going out there."

"And what will that accomplish?" Grace asked. "We don't know where they are and if you go now, you'll get lost in the rain."

"I know, but…!" Just then, the door blew open and revealed a dripping wet Joe. The storm was too difficult to fly in, so walking back to the camp was the only way possible. In his rain soaked arms, his jacket was wrapped tightly around something. Closing the door, the bundle turned out to be a wet cat. Felicia had reverted to her full house-cat form and was shivering from the cold. Starting up a fire, Felicia was set on a dry towel in front of the fireplace to warm up.

Coughing some, Joe had caught a summer cold from going after the enraged Felicia in the woods. Wrapped up in a blanket and sitting at the kitchen table, his wet clothes were dripping dry in the bathroom as he tried to grab a hot cup of tea and fail to keep his hands still. "So if Morrigan didn't do it… she said Jedah might have done it?" Jeff asked his shivering brother who just simply nodded before sneezing again into the blanket. "Yea, you'd think I would get some immunity to the common cold with powers…" Joe sniffled and blew his runny nose into a tissue.

"Now what?" Lucy demanded. "How do you except us to go after Jedah?" Grace stepped in to fill in their new allies.

_The oldest feline went on to explain that when Jedah attempted to try and unite everyone's souls that those who could were seen as "strong" in Jedah's eyes were offered a chance to serve him. However, none of the Darkstalkers trusted Jedah Dohma's claims for a new order and attacked him in his own dimension – the Majigen. While fighting against other Dark Ones both old and new, it turned out that Jedah was trying to create a being called the "Shintai". While normally Felicia was used to fighting those of the Dark, Jedah was something different. None of her attacks would work and each time she tried to grab Jedah, he turned his physical form into blood. This had a negative impact on the popular cat woman… as one who tried to limit the amount of bloodshed in a fight; Felicia's own instincts went wild from all of the blood on her hands and turned her into a Hellcat._

"Wait, so that form she used against Pyron…" Joe interrupted. "Yes, it is something that she can do… but Felicia hates it." Grace answered.

Sometime later that afternoon, Joe was sitting in front of a smoldering fire and reflected what Grace had told him. _The reason Felicia hates that form is that she can't tell friend from foe. We've tried to ask John to teach her how to control it, but he refused and advised us that instinct isn't something that can be trained. He even went as far to tell us that if she's scared of her own true self… to just stop trying to be friends with humans and embrace her darkness._ Looking down at a still transformed Felicia; the cat had stopped shaking and was now sleeping off her match with Morrigan. Rubbing the feline's back some, he could only smile down at the snow white creature. "I understand."

Walking outside, the sky was still filled with clouds ready to storm down at any moment. Seeing the lightning bounce around and feeling the humidly starting to come back… Joe smirked and looked at the ceiling of cloud. Taking a deep breath, the male started to change into his combative self. Tensing up his body, Joe's eyes flickered to their aqua form as he bulked up some. Charging his hands with energy, the human let out a beam into the sky. Traveling up from the dock, it didn't break through the clouds. _I don't sense anything… that means Jedah is doing all of this from the Darkstalker World._ Clenching his fists, Joe was trying to recreate the force that pulled him into the world of the Darkstalkers… but to break the line between the worlds; a huge shock would be needed to do it.

"What are you doing human?" Looking out over the water, Joe's heart skipped a beat as Dami appeared and laughed at him. The reversed version of the silver haired male stared at him without faulting. "You honestly believe you WANT to come back here? You know that if you do, I'll be waiting for you."

"I know…" Catching what seemed to be his own dark self off guard; Joe smirked and threw up a punch at the confused image. "That's why, if you show your sorry ass… I'll destroy you! Just… don't show up until after we deal with Jedah ok?" Blinking at the strange offer, Dami laughed rudely and pointed at Joe who shot a beam through the image. Making the vision fade into nothing, the lone fighter sighed and looked up at the sky. "I will stop this, no one deserves to suffer! Especially not her…" Sliding back from the edge of the dock, the chaotic human leaned back and took his position firmly. Gathering up the forces of light and dark around himself, Joe was preparing to let out the attack that helped to take down Pyron for good.

Twitching around in her towel kitty Felicia was starting to wake up now that the fire had finally gone out. Stretching out and yawning, the full cat realized that she was inside and dry. Jeff, Grace, and Lucy were watching TV and reports of thousands of people just blacking out for no reason. From firemen to even world leaders, people were just keeling over and falling into unexplainable comas. "Damn it, how can we track down someone who is stealing souls without a trail?" Lucy complained. "We need to find a way back to our own world!" Changing back into her cat woman form, Felicia's ears tweaked as she could sense something nearby. "I think someone's already working on that."

A strange glow was coming from the lake's edge as it caused the TV to suddenly turn off. Powering up himself, Joe was going to attempt to force his way to help the ones who Jedah claimed. Hearing thunder above him, the storm clouds had other ideas for the idiot standing on a metal dock with a storm on top of him. Seeing the bolts of lightning start to appear, the human stared down the deadly force of nature and smirked. "I've fought a being of pure energy from space… you think a little static shock to going to stop me?" Clenching his teeth, Joe stared down the incoming storm and prepared to fire.

"Is he stupid?" Turning around the others saw Felicia had just woke up and was clenching her chest. Sensing the incoming lightning strike, the feline woman was scared. "How does he expect to open up a path home?" Holding up a diagram, Jeff started to explain. "Since he's able to copy the ability of Darkstalkers… Joe's trying to access that part of Pyron that allows for instant transport." The diagram had a list of abilities that the former human had learned: starting with Donovan's control over energy to Hsien-Ko's air-dance for flight, they were looking at a perfect mix of various abilities. But this still wasn't enough for Felicia. "That still doesn't mean he needs to be so risky!"

"That's mostly you out there Felicia…" Grace countered. "Think about it, you'll go out of your own way to help others… he does the same thing. Can you name one human we know what would knowingly be labeled a Darkstalker?" Unable to think of an example, the eldest cat woman smiled at her friend. "Besides, the way he moves in a fight is just like a cat person." Moving out of the camp, Felicia was going to stop Joe's madness and started down the hill to the lake. Getting halfway down the stairs, the cat woman's ears stood up on end. "Oh no!" Splitting the clouds, a large bolt of lightning came right for the docked male.

"Now… **RAGING CHAOS!**" Firing off the charged attack, it soared up into the sky and met the lightning strike. Smashing into one another, the forces of nature and chaos twisted in the air in a scene only a movie director could dream off. "Come on, take us back!" Joe yelled as in his anger, he launched off another attack at the conflicting forces. The area was absorbed in a flash of white as the second custom attack crashed into the first; blinding all that saw the clash. The dock was smoldering from the excess energy being shot off as rain started to come down to put out the embers.

**To be continued – End of Chapter 13**

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_Trailer for the next episode:_

The results of Joe's clash with nature to return to an unnatural world are revealed… however; things have taken a drastic turn for the worse as an unplanned power outage combined with a trip to the Makai World ends up creating more problems than solutions. What does this mean about a return of the 'savior'… and how does this affect the Darkstalkers? You'll just have to wait and see!

_Next time:_ Episode Fourteen: **Return to the Dark – Part 2**

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**AN:** The reason I ended the chapter like that is simple, I felt it was starting to ramble on so it got cut.


	14. Return to the Dark – Part 2

**Author Note:** Sorry about the delay... stupid virus! As always, R+R.

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**Episode Fourteen: Return to the Dark – Part 2**

The sounds of chirping birds echoed off the trees as a knocked out human laid face down in the grass. Twitching a bit, the person finally woke up and looked around to get their bearing straight. _Where am I…?_ Pushing off the ground, his body decided to quit as the young man found himself laying now on his back and looking up at the sunny sky. _Oh right… I taunted nature and got shocked._ Starting to remember his duel with lightning and being tossed like a rag doll, Joe found no signs of the camp or anything that looked like home. Looking to his right, he found a building and a small flower patch on his left. _Wait a second…_ _yea, this is Felicity's House._ Remembering the home for orphans that Felicia had started up, the area was familiar from his years of playing the third game in the Darkstalkers series. Finally getting his body to respond, Joe sat up slowly and found that he was not hurt… but the level of fatigue was terrible. _Damn, did I fight Pyron again without my knowing?_

Making his way past the front gate, the area was seemingly quiet for being an orphanage. Turning around a corner, the reason to why it was so quiet became impossible as Joe suddenly fell. "WOAH!" Reaching back quickly, he was able to grab hold of the edge of the unplanned fall and held onto the earth tightly. Against his better judgment, the human looked down and could only see a swirling mess of darkness as he sighed. "I don't wanna know where that goes…" Feeling the patch of earth starting to give way, he went to float up and found nothing happening. Trying to force out his flight capability, the hanging human only could force out was gas. _Ok, why can't I fly now?_ Trying to pull himself up was just the fragile ground needed as an excuse to shatter as Joe freaked out. "Someone please catch me!"

Not wanting to see the dark pit swallow him, he shut his eyes hard… but opened them back up as something had caught his arm and threw the human back onto the earth. Landing on his feet, Joe turned around and found a pair of winged demons staring at him. "See something you want?" Joe commented. Speaking in a language older than the human race, they charged in and prepared to strike down Joe but stopped dead in their tracks. Dead being the main point as their heads were now missing due to something or someone cleaving them off at the neck. "You are a fool."

Catching the head of one of the two demons, Joe panicked and tossed it into the hole. The head vanished into the swirling darkness as he looked up to find Donovan standing over him with the Dhylec in hand. "What are you talking about?" Standing up, it was apparent that something was amiss. Noticing Anita was sleeping in the large Dark Hunter's free left arm, Joe looked puzzled. "Well, explain… why am I a fool Donovan?"

"Can't you sense it? The sudden lack of life in the world?"

"Huh?" Looking around, nothing seemed to be different than the first time he was in the human world inside the Darkstalker Universe. It took a moment… but Joe soon came to realize something WAS wrong. Trying to throw his energy at a brick wall to check on himself… nothing came out. Jumping off the ground to fly, he found himself well grounded. "Wait… I'm normal?" This fact became true as he looked into the Dhylec's blade and saw his regular brown hair and eyes staring back at him.

"That would explain why you couldn't sense those two weak creatures… as well as Anita's lack of life." The child who was born with incredible powers even in her young age had the same motionless body frame as the kittens. "Donovan, when did this happen?"

Taking a seat in Felicia's Orphanage (or what was left from the hole in the ground) the half-blooded Donovan began to explain. It seemed that thousands of people started to just fall into comas at random for the past week. Doctors have not been able to find a trace of what could cause healthy individuals to just collapse and many began to suspect Darkstalker involvement. However, when on a hunt Donovan explained that he had found several different types of creatures that had become comatose as well. It wasn't that soon after that Anita had fallen to the unknown cause as well.

Standing up from the living room, Donovan's right eye began to react to the presence of a Darkstalker. Soon enough, Morrigan appeared in the room in her battle attire. "Oh? The hunter is here too?" Drawing out his sword, the Dhampir turned hunter was not as accepting of Joe's previous selection of allies against Pyron. Before a fight could break out in Felicia's home, Joe stepped between the two Nightwarriors to try and gain a truce. "Wait a second Donovan! Morrigan is not responsible for this either."

"You should be more trusting of those of the dark…" Morrigan allured. "… especially since you're just like me."

"Not helping!" Joe shot back at the head-winged woman. Picking up Anita's motionless body, the six-foot hunter was preparing to leave. "Hold on Donovan, we…"

"I refuse! You sought my help in the past… but that's over." Turning his back to the normal looking human, the normally calm and collected hunter stared down Joe with his still active yellow eye. "Next time we meet, you and I are going to settle our differences about those of the Dark… whether or not you regain your strength." Walking out of the orphanage and into the day, the door seemed to slam shut behind Donovan as if the wind was pissed off as well. Looking at the human, Morrigan was confused and popped the question. "What did he mean 'regain your strength'?" Gulping, Joe knew what would be coming next.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NORMAL'?" Flinching in fear, Morrigan's bats had suddenly begun to swarm behind her. Thinking about it again… Joe realized that telling her that his powers had suddenly disappeared was a mistake as Morrigan hated to deal with weaklings and those who couldn't satisfy her. Recovering slowly, he still had to deal with the now upset succubus over not being able to test her own strength against the one who was able to destroy a being of pure energy in one blast. "You can sense power right? Well look at me… do I give off elite power like before?"

Staring over the human in front of her, the head of Aensland was scanning Joe over for that 'fun' power from before. However this time… that power that had made her excited to keep tabs on a human was not there. Grabbing hold of Joe's hair, she began to shake and rattle the stunned male. "What did you do with that power?"

"I-i-i-i-I don't know!" Joe said while being shaken. One of Morrigan's bats started to squeak into her ear and relay a message from Makai World. Listening in to the message, it seemed that a meeting between several clans was going to meet and discuss a plan of action to deal with the unknown syndrome that affected their kind. "I don't have time to deal with you here…" Summoning a key, it flew into the closet door and opened up a portal to her castle. "… so you are coming with me!" Before Joe could voice his disproval, he was dragged into the closet as the door slammed shut.

Arriving from the Human World in a flash, Morrigan's attire changed back to her casual clothing to prevent those in attendance from thinking a fight was coming. Joe was stuffed in a corner room, away from those in attendance, if a human was seen deep in the chambers of Makai… who knew what would happen. "What do you mean several of our own kind had their souls removed?" Morrigan asked, still completely unaware of the situation in the Makai World due to her constant desire to shirk the responsibility of being the head of Aensland. Receiving a report from one of her butlers, it was a print out on how nearly thirty percent of the population in the Makai was now comatose. Mostly consisting of those under C-Class, it wasn't something that nobles would care about… however when ALL of their servants suddenly turn up un-responsive, it then became a matter of possible war.

Sitting in his room, Joe was still waiting for Morrigan to come back and escort him to a better location to question further. Growling louder… the human's stomach was complaining about not eating in several hours. _Awww man…_ Looking around, there were various 'things' in glass containers… but nothing that even looked like it could satisfy his hunger. Meanwhile outside in the hallway… a group of Darkstalkers were being brought in for questioning. Sniffing the air, one of the shadows moved away from the group and approached the door to Joe's room. Hearing the knock on the black wooden door and sighing in relief, Joe opened the door to complain to his succubus 'caretaker'.

"It's about time…" However, instead of seeing the aqua-haired Morrigan… an old friend was outside. "Joe? What are you doing here?" Felicia asked.

Before he could answer, a pair of small red eyes was looking at them from the shadows. Realizing it was an alarm set to prevent anyone from getting near the human… Joe looked up and pleaded with the winged creature. "You don't want to alert the castle guard right?" Smirking quite evilly, the bat suddenly took off for its owner. Chasing after the bat as if his life depended on it, Joe filled in Felicia to what was going on. "So that explains why we were called into Morrigan's home." The feline answered. "We? Wait, who else did Morrigan bring into here?"

Rounding a corner, Joe ran right into something soft and fluffy. "What do we have here? A human screwing around in the Aensland House?" The gruff, aged voice belonged to the head of Bigfoot as the large creature went to grab Joe and crush his head for not apologizing right away for running into him. Before the quad-extra-large hand could smash in Joe's skull, Felicia called out to the beast. "Tundra stop… or I'm going to have your CD order canceled!" Freezing in place, Tundra looked down at a scared human with a smile. Not wanting to lose out on having a special autographed CD sent to the village, the extra-large Bigfoot suddenly changed his conduct. "I'm just playing around Felicia. If you know that famous Darkstalker, you are ok with me!" Tundra boasted and slapped Joe's back.

Now if Joe was able to access his abilities, a friendly symbol of affection from Tundra would be child's play and be nothing but a pat on the back. Today… that 'pat' would end up throwing the human quite a distance. "Joe!" Unable to grab her normal friend, Felicia watched as the brown haired human get tossed over a balcony and dropped to the floor below. Crashing through a table filled with paper reports, Joe stood up and looked around at a stunned crowd. The heads of Makai were shocked to see a human barge in their meeting, but nobles belonging to the Kreutz family saw Joe's face and became enraged. "That's the one who killed our teacher!" Bursting out from another balcony, a group of demons were in a fit of blood rage… wanting to kill the one who killed one of their own had override their years of strict training.

"Excuse me. I need to attend to this…" Stepping out from his seat, the movement of one of those sitting in attendance had to act to quell the violence in his clan. Joe could only watch as the group of ten demons were erased from the room. _What the hell?_ Looking at the nearest wall, a series of imprints had been carved as if something had been thrown through the stone surface. Outside the building laid the knocked out forms of the demons who thought attacking in a neutral location would be ignored. Looking back at Joe… the sixteen foot tall creature coiled its scale lined tail around his body and moved back towards the table. _Berial… are humans really Makai's next step in evolution?_

**To be continued – End of Chapter 14**

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_Trailer for the next episode:_

As the situation in the Makai and Human Worlds get worse, those in charge decide to kill off Joe… believing that he was the cause of those being left in comas. However, a long forgotten weapon from Makai's dark past is about to show its head once again.

_Next time:_ Episode Fifteen: **Unseal the Nameless Weapon!**

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**AN: MERRY CHRISTMAS**


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